2023-04-17 13:59:54
Cuban businessmen or “mules” as they are called on the island, who are engaged in “shopping tourism” abroad, continue to use these roads to live on the island and resell their products, in order to continue paying the travel and improve their status, in the midst of a great crisis.
Currently, the activity of the mules continues with ample options for it, with direct and charter flights, as well as packages, such as those in Venezuela, which include taking you directly to the “mall” to make purchases. We tell you below three options these days, which can be very useful for you.
We start with the most popular these days: Islas Margarita, Venezuela. According to official data, the “Cuban mules” are leaving some 5,000 dollars in purchases on each trip, something that they later recover by selling on the island at super high prices. They will say that it is not their problem that the island is short of supplies.
For example, buying packages with Cubatur, even the visa to Venezuela for this activity is included. They are seven-day packages with the Estelar airline and even Conviasa. The visa costs 50 dollars. Includes airport pick up, round trip ticket, daily transfer to shopping stores and two suitcases. You can pay an additional $150. The price of these packages is above 900 dollars.
SHOPPING TOURISM FROM CUBA
But Isla Margarita is not the only one. A very popular destination for “shopping tourism” from Cuba has always been Nicaragua, which also does not require an entry visa for Cubans. Before it became the gateway to the southern border of the United States, “Cuban mules” dropped thousands of dollars at shops and businesses in Nicaragua.
In 2019, some 2,000 Cubans arrived in Nicaragua per month to make these purchases and then resell in their businesses on the island. In the Oriental Market of Nicaragua, with some 20,000 stores, the number of Cubans going to buy multiplied. They came in groups and in search of the best prices. The trend has decreased, but there are still direct flights with Conviasa and Aruba.
Finally, another destination in the Dominican Republic, which currently offers aid for family reunification tourism in Punta Cana and for those packages “the mules” also sneak in. Since 2021, Dominican businessmen and businessmen have been asking their government to facilitate the entry of these Cubans for “shopping tourism.” There are direct flights with Air Century.
“We are not asking that Cubans’ visas be taken away, but rather, through our federation, to be able to serve as a kind of umbrella for those merchants who come here to do their shopping to take it to Cuba. That a simple business visa be granted and that they come and spend here”, he pointed Abel Vasquer Hevia, president of the Federation of Micro, Small and Medium Dominican Entrepreneurs.
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