Tourism in Cuba

Cuba has long been a popular attraction for tourists. Between 1915 and 1930, Havana hosted more tourists than any other location in the Caribbean.[8] The influx was due in large part to Cuba's proximity to the United States, where restrictive prohibition on alcohol and other pastimes stood in stark contrast to the island's traditionally relaxed attitude to drinking and other pastimes. Tourism became Cuba's third largest source of foreign currency, behind the two dominant industries of sugar and tobacco. Cuban drinks such as the daiquiri and mojito became common in the United States during this time, after Prohibition was repealed.

A combination of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the end of Prohibition, and World War II severely dampened Cuba's tourist industry, and it wasn't until the 1950s that numbers began to return to the island in any significant force. During this period, American organized crime came to dominate the leisure and tourist industries, a modus operandi outlined at the infamous Havana Conference of 1946. By the mid-1950s, Havana became one of the main markets and the favourite route for the narcotics trade to the United States. Despite this, tourist numbers grew steadily at a rate of 8% a year and Havana became known as "the Latin Las Vegas".[8][9]

Hotel Nacional in Havana. The hotel's guestlist includes Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway, and also played host to the infamous Havana Conference in 1946

Immediately upon becoming President of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Manuel Urrutia ordered the closing of many bars and gambling halls associated with prostitution and the drug trade, effectively ending Cuba's image as a hedonistic escape. A new governmental body, the National Institute of the Tourism Industry (INTUR), was established to encourage more tourism; taking over hotels, clubs, and beaches making them available to the general public at low rates. Tourist board chief Carlos Almonia announced a program of huge investment in hotels and the creation of a new airport. But fears of Cuba's post-revolutionary status amongst Americans, who constituted 8 out of 10 visitors,[8] meant a rapid decline in tourism to the island.

In January 1961, relations between the nations sharply deteriorated as a result of bank and business expropriations, mass exodus, summary executions, and private property being declared illegal by a now openly communist regime being backed by the USSR. Tourism travel to Cuba was soon declared by the U.S. State Department to be contrary to U.S. foreign policy and against the national interest. Tourism that year dropped to a record low of a mere 4180, forcing a dramatic downsizing of Cuba's tourist plans.[10] Visitors to Cuba during the 1960s, 70s and 80s were comparatively rare. The number of tourists to the island did increase slowly, but it wasn't until 1989 that they equalled pre-Revolutionary numbers.[8]

The collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused a crisis in the Cuban economy. The Soviets were Cuba's chief trading partner, and had effectively sheltered Cuba's sugar industry with large subsidies for 30 years. The lack of economic diversification during this period, and the sudden loss of key markets such as the Eastern Bloc, sent the country into a deep economic depression euphemistically known in Cuba as the Special Period. The crisis precipitated the communist regime to find new avenues of income.

Policies were drawn up to satisfy the growing tourist markets of Canada and Europe with an aim to replace Cuba's reliance on the sugar industry and gain much needed foreign currency rapidly. A new Ministry of Tourism was created in 1994, and the Cuban state invested heavily in tourist facilities. Between 1990 and 2000, more than $3.5 billion was invested in the tourist industry. The number of rooms available to international tourists grew from 12,000 to 35,000,[11] and the country received a total of 10 million visitors over that period.[8] By 1995 tourism had surpassed sugar as Cuba's chief income source.

Today, travelers from around the world visit Cuba, arriving by a mixture of scheduled and charter airlines to one of Cuba's ten international airports. By far the largest number come from Canada, where arrivals have been increasing by almost 10% annually since 2007. Europeans follow next, primarily arriving from Great Britain, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. According to the official government agency, it is unknown exactly how many Americans traveled to Cuba each year as tourists, in violation of U.S. trade policy.[12] According to some statistics around 20,000 to 30,000 Americans illegally traveled to Cuba every year, while the Cuban government put it higher at over 60,000. Americans could either fly on the direct charter flights or reach Cuba via flights from Canada or Mexico. In June 2016, the US government authorized six airlines to start direct scheduled flights to Cuba. In January 2015, the US government had changed their legislation to make it easier for travel from the US to Cuba, further amended in March 2016. While parts of these loosened restrictions were later revoked by President Trump in 2017, travel to Cuba remains legal for US citizens who meet certain requirements.[13][14] As of 2019, Americans are legally allowed to go to Cuba with an OFAC self-reporting General License if they meet the requirements for one of the 12 categories of legal travel (such as family visits, religious purposes, journalistic work, etc.)[15] Independent travelers to Cuba can qualify for the "Support for the Cuban People" category by maintaining a full-time schedule of activities that fulfill this requirement.[16]

Until 2015, all visitors paid a $25 exit tax at the airport prior to departure but this is now included in the costs of the flight.

As well as receiving traditional tourism revenues, Cuba attracts health tourists, generating annual revenues of around $40 million for the Cuban economy. Cuba has been a popular health tourism destination for more than 20 years. In 2005, more than 19,600 foreign patients traveled to Cuba for a wide range of treatments including eye surgery, neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, and orthopaedics. Many patients are from Latin America, although medical treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, often known as night blindness, has attracted many patients from Europe and North America.[24][25]

Some complaints have arisen that foreign "health tourists" paying with dollars receive a higher quality of care than do Cuban citizens. Former leading Cuban neurosurgeon and dissident Dr. Hilda Molina asserts that the central revolutionary objective of free, quality medical care for all has been eroded by Cuba's need for foreign currency. Molina says that following the economic collapse known in Cuba as the Special Period, the Cuban government established mechanisms designed to turn the medical system into a profit-making enterprise, thus creating a disparity in the quality of healthcare services between Cubans and foreigners.[26]

The recent studies shows that Cuba has a huge potential for mountaineering activity, however, it is not utilized properly. The mountaineering in Cuba should be considered to be one of the key contributors (as well as other forms of active tourism e.g. biking, diving, caving) to the development, prosperity, and well-being of all stakeholders, and especially for the communities outside the tourism enclaves.[27] Furthermore, mountaineering regions mostly lie outside the enclaves, so no conflict will exist between active and all-inclusive tourism. And what is most important is that tourism product diversification (both product and spatial) can be achieved.[28] Furthermore, by creating spatial and thematic product links as well as synergies (also with all-inclusive tourism), mountaineering, as well as other forms of active tourism (e.g. biking, diving, caving) often develop in destinations.[29]

Although Fidel Castro sought to eliminate prostitution after taking power, the discrepancy between typical Cuban wages (less than one US dollar per day) and the spending power of foreign tourists lures some Cubans, including minors,[30] into prostitution. However, allegations of widespread sex tourism have been downplayed by Cuban justice minister Maria Esther Reus.[31] According to the Miami Herald, prostitution is not illegal in Cuba, but procuring a prostitute for others is outlawed. The age of sexual consent on the island is 16.[31] According to a travel advice website by the government of Canada, "Cuba is actively working to prevent child sex tourism, and a number of tourists, including Canadians, have been convicted of offences related to the corruption of minors aged 16 and under. Prison sentences range from 7 to 25 years."[32] It is illegal to import or produce pornography in Cuba.

While the growth of tourism has benefited the city of Havana economically, there have been several negative side effects. One such side effect is the revival of sex tourism in the city. Sex tourism was a central part of the tourism industry before the Revolution. However, after 1960, prostitution was essentially eradicated on the island due to government initiatives and a significant drop in demand as tourism was minimized.[33] With tourism becoming more prevalent in the 1990s, however, so did the practice of prostitution. The demographic profile of tourists (the overwhelming majority being men between ages 25–60) is a key indicator of the existence of prostitution. Additionally, websites and magazines, such as Playboy, have outlined the opportunities for both heterosexual and homosexual sex tourism.[33] According to Trumbull, many prostitutes engage in the practice out of economic necessity, but they do not work in oppressive conditions and a large number of prostitutes in contemporary Havana see the work as a way to earn a better living than if they were to work in open jobs throughout the city.[33] Therefore, contemporary prostitution is different than the sex tourism of the 1950s in this regard.

"Cocotaxis" in Plaza de la Revolución, Havana. Because of the rapid growth of tourism in Cuba, taxi drivers can earn more than lawyers and doctors.

Between 1992 and 2008, in order to gain the much-needed hard currency, some hotels and resorts were opened only to foreign tourists, leading to accusations of "tourism apartheid". The policy was reversed by the Cuban government in 2008.

Cuba's tourism policies of the early 1990s, which were driven by the government's pressing need to earn hard currency,[40] had a major impact on the underlying egalitarianism espoused by the Cuban revolution.[41][42][43] Two parallel economies and societies quickly emerged, divided by their access to the newly legalized U.S. dollar. Those having access to dollars through contact with the lucrative tourist industry suddenly found themselves at a distinct financial advantage over professional, industrial and agricultural workers.[41][44]

To ensure the isolation of international tourism from Cuban society, tourism was to be promoted in enclave resorts where, as much as possible, tourists would be segregated from Cuban society. This was not lost on the average Cuban citizen, and the government tourism policy soon began to be referred to as "enclave tourism" and "tourism apartheid".[45]

In 1992, as Cuba entered a period of severe economic austerity, Fidel Castro defended the newly instituted policies in a speech to the Cuban National Assembly. He described the moves as an economic necessity that would need to be maintained for as long as the country had a need for foreign currency. According to Castro, the government was "pondering formulas" that would allow Cubans to use some of the tourist facilities as a reward for outstanding work, but he believed that giving Cubans access to amenities at the expense of paying foreign tourists would ultimately be a counterproductive move for the economy.[43]

Until 1997, contact between tourists and Cubans was de facto outlawed, and Cubans seen in contact with tourists were regarded as potential thieves by police.[4][5] Global human-rights groups' complaints, and the upcoming visit of Pope John Paul II, helped cause an about-face, although such contact was still frowned upon. Police often demanded identification checks of any Cubans seen in contact with tourists.[4] Tourist identification was usually not checked unless the tourist has dark skin and was mistaken for Cuban.[4] Despite the restrictions, average Cubans thrive on Cuba's tourist industry,[4][46] and many simply see the policy as inevitable.[40]

A street in the popular tourist district of Old Havana

The policy of restricting certain hotels and services to tourists was ended by the government of Raúl Castro in March 2008.[47] As well as officially allowing Cubans to stay in any hotel, the change also opened access to previously restricted areas such as Cayo Coco. Government-run tour agencies began special offers aimed at the general population, allowing them to spend a few days in beach resorts.