If you’re travelling to Cuba, try not to harm communities

If you're travelling to Cuba, try not to harm communities
SARA HEEMBROCK
Published March 2, 2016 - 8:43pm
Last Updated March 2, 2016 - 8:47pm

The last two weeks have been a busy time in Canadian airports, with
university students and middle-aged couples heading to the Caribbean for
cheap vacations to escape the cold and the stress of daily life.

Airport gates with departures to Havana, Varadero, Cayo Coco and other
Cuban tourist destinations are filled with deal-loving tourists,
sometimes tipsy, totting wide-brim sunhats, Birkenstocks and Bubbas. But
weather-inappropriate clothing choices are not their only fault.

Many return home unable to recount anything beyond a romanticised
perception of Cuban hospitality and the cheapness of Cuban rum. Many
cannot tell you the name of the locale they visited. And tourists are
completely unaware of the harm their "break-from-reality vacations" have
on Cuban development and the dire reality of Cuban locals.

Canadian tourists are not to blame for their lack of knowledge. Media
attention is focused on experiencing the socialist island before
Americans take over and ruin our "American-free oasis." We are fixated
on a need to see Cuba before it changes and becomes capitalist. This all
depends on whether Cuba does drastically change.


We hear stories that glorify the industry and allow us to justify cheap
vacations. Tourism is supposedly helping the country develop, funding
the state's social programs and generating more lucrative job
opportunities for Cuban locals.

If that's the case, the fact that tourism increased 17 per cent in 2015,
with three million tourists visiting the country's romanticized capital,
Havana City, must be a great thing for the economy. Right? Wrong.

The tourist invasion stimulates and increases economic inequality by
creating two classes of citizens, those who can work in the lucrative
tourism industry and those who cannot. It also strains the country's
deteriorating infrastructure.

The state has transformed several old colonial mansions into businesses
catering to tourists. Such developments include swanky cafés and
restaurants that, ironically, Cubans themselves cannot afford to frequent.

To accommodate these developments, the state is relocating Cubans from
their homes, sometimes referred to as "slums", off Plaza Vieja, and
transferring them to satellite regions in the suburbs.

This uproots communities and disrupts daily life, while removing Cubans
from their sources of income. Many of the Cubans living off of Plaza
Vieja and in Old Havana rely on their daily interactions with tourists
to make ends meet.

Without this, they cannot maintain their livelihoods.

Cuba's development and investment in tourism is neo-colonial. By forcing
Cubans to make way for new businesses created for tourists, and
inaccessible for locals, Cuba is sacrificing the needs of its own citizens.

Giving priority to tourist demand for a chic restaurant, or a sandy
beach to relax on while enjoying ridiculously cheap Cuba Libres,
neglects Cubans' needs. It reinforces the antiquated notion that the
Third World must cater to the First World.

We need to reconsider egotistical desires to visit developing nations.

At the very least, we must inform ourselves before departing on
all-inclusive trips to ensure we do not uproot local communities and
disrupt progress of other nations.

Perhaps it's time for us to sacrifice something for the benefit of the
Third World. I've heard Florida is nice this time of year. Why don't we
try our luck there?

Sara Heembrock is a Dalhousie student in International Development
Studies. Last year, she studied social development at Havana University.

Source: If you're travelling to Cuba, try not to harm communities | The
Chronicle Herald -
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1346344-if-you%E2%80%99re-travelling-to-cuba-try-not-to-harm-communities