Cuba to open LGBTI + hotel

An LGBTI+ hotel, the first of its kind, will open soon in Havana, Cuba, in association with the Spanish chain Axel, announced its operator, the Gaviota Tourism Group.

“The Hotel Telegrafo Axel La Habana, today in the concluding phase of a process

of renovation and improvement (…) will soon reopen its doors in an alliance between the Gaviota Tourism Group and the Spanish chain Axel Hotels,” said the group on its website.

The hotel is located in front of Central Park, very close to the Capitol and the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater.

The facility will have 63 rooms and many services, some newly, conceived “among the most substantial improvements added to the facility.”

Gaviota is a powerful tourist group of the Armed Forces and Axel Corp. “is a business group that directs its activity both to companies with interests in the

LGBTIQ+ community, as well as to the community itself,” according to its site.

Axel “aims to position itself as the world’s leading business group aimed at the LGBTIQ+ public, with a range of quality services and products,” it adds from its headquarters in Barcelona.

Cuba celebrates its Pride day on May 17, within an annual day dedicated to rescuing the rights of that community, led by the National Center for Sex Education, led by Deputy Mariela Castro, daughter and niece of former presidents Raúl and Fidel Castro, respectively.

After decades of discrimination and marginalization, the LGBTIQ+ community

has been gaining space and recognition in Cuba, a historically patriarchal and sexist society.