Tourists flock to a changing Cuba

LOS ANGELES / DPA

Victor Leonardo stares out through the window of the tour bus winding its way through the palm-lined streets of the popular resort town of Varadero, Cuba.
“Cuba has changed rapidly over the last decade,” he says.
Leonardo, 50, comes from the eastern province of Granma. He worked as a Spanish teacher for decades, but it became increasingly difficult for him to make ends meet on his monthly salary of 25 US dollars.
“We get food rations, a free healthcare system and education from the state. But for me every month was like a little fight for survival.”
So he decided to move to the seaside town of Varadero, where one hotel complex follows another, to become a tourist guide. He now earns several times his former salary.
Two hours’ drive away, the vibrant capital Havana is crawling with tourists. They drink mojitos and daiquiris in Hemingway’s favourite bars such as Floridita and La Bodeguita, take trips in candy-coloured classic cars or wander through the old town alleyways past the rundown Spanish colonial buildings. Tourism is booming. Last year, Cuba received a record four million visitors – 13 per cent more than in 2015.
Anyone hoping to experience Cuba in the days before mass tourism will be sadly disappointed.
“There are many more tourists than I expected,” says Nicole Tamer from Germany.
“Lots of people want to come to Cuba before it’s too late, but that could seem insulting to the locals, as if the country is a relic of bygone days,” she says.
“Cuba is not isolated from the rest of the world and especially as a result of the digital revolution, the inhabitants are aware of progress.”
Tourism has become a lifeline for the socialist Caribbean island, with revenues now making up 10% of GDP.
“Tourism has been a key industry for Cuba since the early nineties,” says Ricardo Torres, an economics professor at the University of Havana.
“Tourism creates many jobs and local workers benefit from tips.”
But the boom is becoming a stress test: hotel rooms are expensive – up to 270 dollars per night – and often fully booked months in advance.
But the country of 12 million inhabitants is getting prepared. By 2030, 108,000 new hotel rooms are to be built and the international airport in Havana is to be modernised.
In 2008, Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel who had died the previous November, and since then he has loosened several economic restrictions.
Although tourism is still largely controlled by the state, the opening up has especially benefited the private sector.
Since the socialist government has permitted the operation of privately run restaurants, known as ‘paladares,’ and private accommodation, or ‘casa particulars,’ the self-employed are among the higher earners.
It’s not just Europeans who are contributing to the tourist boom. After a long period of frozen ties, the US renewed diplomatic relations with its former enemy under the presidency of Barack Obama in July 2015.
Thanks to the political thaw, 284,937 US Americans visited Cuba last year, according to Cuban chief negotiator Josefina Vidal. That is a record increase of 74 per cent compared with 2015.
However, the decades-old trade embargo is still in place, and US citizens are only allowed to visit Cuba under one of 12 travel categories, such as education or religion.
“I do not think either party hoped for dramatic changes overnight,” Torres says. “[T]there is still a long way to go for the ties and the transformation of our country.”
New US President Donald Trump has threatened to end the policy of detente if Cuba does not make further political concessions, without specifying exactly what he means by this. His nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has also warned that Obama’s Cuba policy would be
reviewed.
“Nobody knows what Trump will do, but I believe it won’t come to an end in diplomatic relations,” Torres says. “We hope that by Mr Trump being a businessman who is surrounded by many businesspeople in the cabinet, pragmatism will dominate the agenda with Cuba in the end.”
As the sun sinks slowly, the bus drives past pictures of the revolutionary heroes Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Fidel Castro, past farmers and ox carts slowly ploughing their way through the fields, and past packed buses taking tired workers back to their homes.
Many Cubans are eager for change.
“There have been a lot of changes since Raul took over: We can travel, work independently, the press enjoys more freedom; but change hasn’t come as fast as we would have hoped,” says Leonardo.
But he does not believe that his country will become Americanized. “Cubans are far too patriotic and proud for that.”