The no-shows are the losers

By José Alejandro Rodríguez

HAVANA – Despite the U.S. embargo, Cuba seduces tourists in ever-growing numbers.

And it’s the American citizens who lose out by being unable to cross the Straits at reasonable prices to discover that, while the neighboring island is imperfect and modest so it can’t offer too many excesses, it has more than enough attractions, safety, affection and singularities (even though these are concealed by some detractors who are paid for spewing lies.)

According to the National Office of Statistics and Information, in the first seven months of 2012, one million 842,202 tourists visited the island – rather, the archipelago, with its heavenly “Hemingwayan” keys. Compared with a similar period in 2011, this figure represents an increase of 5.4 percent.

Canada continues to lead the list, with 41 percent of the visitors, taking advantage of the absence of Americans. And although the number of traditional clients – England, Italy and Spain – has decreased, perhaps as a result of the economic crisis in Europe, Germany and France have increased their participation.

Argentina, with a 41-percent increase over last year, is becoming one of our main tourism partners, followed by Russia.

More tourists and more revenue

Described as “the engine” of Cuba’s economy since the mid-1990s until the early 2000s, the tourism industry, while still an important source of revenue for the economy, has relinquished its supremacy to the exportation of professional services, mainly in health care, thanks to the competent human capital of this small nation.

Today, the strategists in Cuban tourism are trying to make the increase in visitors parallel to an increase in associated revenue. In other words, not only bring in more visitors but also encourage them to pour more money into the nation’s coffers. And although the income from related activities increased by 12.8 percent in 2011 compared with 2010, there is evidence that the volume of added-value revenue is still undertapped.

Experts in “the industry without chimneys” point out that a substantial part of the value of those services goes to the tour operators and the international travel agencies that perform the marketing and sales promotions through all-included packages.

That’s why they insist, not always with palpable results, on the need to diversify the Cuban offerings beyond the traditional sun-and-surf tourism, with greater emphasis on culture, health and the ecology.

All included – and a lot more

The existence of predetermined packages with all service included, along with the restrictions of excessive centralization, the narrow margin of operation and the inability to be more flexible in terms of salaries for employees, limits the creativity and initiative of tourism executives when looking for new sources of revenue.

Add to this the fact that the effort to decentralize local development is just that – an effort. The recreation network through territorial initiative will be diversified when the self-sustaining projects from local administrations begin with the participation of the people. This would complement the industry, bring in money and establish chains of recreational sites throughout the island. 

Once the tourism entities in each territory contribute to the local economies, the citizens will see a closer relationship between the income from local tourism and the progress and development of their land or community.

Often, those who conceive the tourism programs forget that a visitor’s life is not confined to the hotels and the keys. The tourist’s acceptance of our country is also based on and nourished by our streets and barrios. There shouldn’t be a glass-enclosed paradise while, three blocks away, there is environmental deterioration, water leaks or potholes in the streets.

Besides, Cuba’s tourism strategy cannot sustain a purely state-run management. It should realize that the “industry without chimneys” has generated a brisk private industry. Among the more than 390,000 self-employed businesses, bed-and-breakfast hosting is among the five most widespread activities.

Last May, the newspaper Trabajadores reported that more than 5,000 rooms were being rented to private individuals and 1,600 private restaurants, called paladares, competed for diners (local and foreign) with the big state-owned restaurant chains.

The work of this non-state sector should be encouraged, and greater facilities should be given for the reproduction of its capital and the margin of profits, which eventually enter the nation’s coffers as taxes.

It is clear that it is almost a feat to develop tourism in Cuba, amid an unpredictable international outlook, with so many economic difficulties and under the constraints of the U.S. embargo, which forbids the visit to Cuba of Americans, who are the nearest potential tourists.

But the main thing is here: the country’s beauty and the will and virtue of its people. The rest is the ability to offer those products with intelligence, boldness and flexibility, avoiding barriers erected abroad and dismantling domestic barriers. Above all, this should be done with great self-esteem and sovereignty. Cuba is a lot more than sun, beaches and rumba dancers. Cuba is a lot.

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