How tourism is transforming Cuba’s cities
By Jesús M. González Pérez, Doctor of Geography and Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford University (2016), Professor at University of the Balearic Islands (Spain) and Chairman of the Urban Geographers Group of the Spanish Geographers Association. He has directed four research projects in Cuba and done three research stays at the University of Havana.
The development of tourism tends to correspond to a singular urban practice that is functionally and structurally differentiated from the conventional city. Tourist cities represent a unique form of development because, among other issues, they have been built solely for consumption.
After the Mediterranean, the second most popular “sun and sand” tourism region in the world is the Caribbean. Cuba occupies a geo-strategically prominent place in the zone: it is the largest island and second most important tourist destination. After the Dominican Republic, Cuba stands out among the Caribbean islands as the region’s second most popular tourist destination, with 3.5 million visitors in 2010. Tourist destinations in the Caribbean reveal different tactics for the same strategy: the appropriation of profits through tourism activities.
The mass tourism resorts of the Caribbean have changed landscapes, economic activities and societies. The seafront areas have been extensively modified by the presence of hotel resorts, but no less important have been the changes that have taken place behind these macro tourism and real estate developments: informal settlements, urban segregation, urban sprawl, to name a few. In most territories, transnational tourism corporations manage the activity; however, in Cuba, the state participates directly in the process.
Tourism in Cuba can be divided into four stages: first, the pre-revolutionary years from 1930 to 1959, followed by national tourism between 1959 and 1970, which was marked by domestic withdrawal and the orthodoxy of the Soviet area. Next was the recovery of tourism between 1970 and 1989, when it began to be defined as a first-order economic alternative for reducing dependence on sugar exports. And fourth, the collapse of the Soviet bloc from 1990s onward, when tourism became one of the main ways to attract foreign currency to help sustain the island’s socialist development, in order to overcome the economic crisis known as the “special period.” The result was the transformation of Cuban society and economy. Tourism was opened to international capital to gain foreign currency.
From the 1990s, with the general collapse of the Soviet system and of most of its allies, new countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Vietnam, China, and Cuba, had to undergo a transition to global openness. The socialist political-economic regime and isolation caused by the U.S. economic blockade is fundamental to understanding this case study’s unique nature. The duality of the Cuban economy is based on socialist property — the state owns the means of production, although private property exists — and on the planned economy, which gives the government complete control over the allocation of resources. The economic reforms established after the fall of socialist countries in the early 1990s made foreign investment possible through joint ventures and eliminated the irreversibility of state ownership in exceptional cases.
Foreign investments in tourism (Melià, Iberostar, Blue, Riu, Breezes, etc.) as it happens in the hotels in Varadero — the top tourist destination in Cuba — are complemented by investments made by Cuban enterprises (Cubanacán, Gaviota, Gran Caribe, Islazul, etc.) through management contracts. In these cases, the land is always owned by the Cuban company; investments are made by both parties, and either the Cuban or foreign firm can be in charge of management. In the early years, foreign hotel chains were responsible for management because of their greater experience and long-standing business relations with tour operators. At present, the mixed-company model allows Cuban capital to manage the hotels directly. In short, the result is a centrally planned economy that exists alongside the operation of a regulated market economy and increasingly decentralized corporate management.
All these changes known since the “special period” seek, on the one hand, to be sufficiently open to international capital investors to ensure a steady path to global tourism, and on the other hand, to meet the true economic and social needs of resident populations.
If the changes that took place at the beginning of the 1990s led in some way to the development of tourism and an initial influx of foreign capital, the changes that will occur due to the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, which began in mid-December 2014, will also be significant. The incorporation of new stakeholders and the increased number of interests related to urban tourism development are key issues for the future of the Cuban city.
In this scenario it is important to highlight two aspects. On one side, experience in planning and management of tourist areas in Cuba is important. The development of tourism policy designed by the country has led to the implementation of plans and tourism development programs in major tourist regions, such as Playas del Este, the northern coast of Holguin, and Canarreos archipelago, among others. On the other hand, Cuba relies on a land-use and urban planning system that is comprehensive and hierarchical. This approach to planning allows them to face socio-urban risks stemming from intense tourism development, such as the gentrification of historic city centers. Cuba’s ability to resist strong residential-tourism pressure (such as Air BnB) is an indicator of the quality and efficiency of the country’s approved zoning tools.
The most significant urban transformations caused by tourism are focused on two kinds of spaces: historic city centers and coastal tourism areas and their residential spaces. Havana is an excellent case as it is the second most visited tourism destination in Cuba and the most popular of Cuba’s three cities declared by UNESCO to be World Heritage Sites. The gentrification process is a generalized urban strategy in neoliberal urban policies. But in Havana, a socialist city, gentrification is rejected from an official point of view.
Nevertheless, some socio-economic changes in the land use, largely driven by tourism and the law that gives options to sell housing in the free market, may mean that we are at the beginning of the process in Havana. The increase in holiday rental and the arrival of Airbnb are examples of the changes in this city. Furthermore, it is significant that among the businessmen who accompanied former U.S. President Barack Obama to Havana on the historic visit in March 2016, were Brian Chesky (Airbnb) and Arne Sorenson (Marriott).
Varadero also stands out, as it is the main tourism destination in Cuba. This city is an example of the contradictions that (capitalist and neoliberal) tourism may generate in a socialist country, where the tourism and urban model is planned, but many of the actions are governed by developmental goals, and on occasions, are favorable to capital from international hotel chains.
Nowadays, Varadero is the leading tourist destination in Cuba, a resort aimed at international tourism. The hotel chains are practically the same ones found in other tourist resorts in the region: the all-inclusive model is the only possibility of accommodation, the architectural styles of the hotels and their extensive recreational areas are practically identical to other Caribbean resorts, and the predominance of bunkerized architecture is a valuable reference in Varadero too. In short, a McDonaldization of the hotel industry that ends up turning these places into authentic “nonplaces” (anonymous spaces, as coined by anthropologist Marc Augé), of sun and sand tourism. Yet, in the last 35 years, Varadero has passed four land and urban planning schemes, plus one already drafted and in the process of approval. Three of these were passed at the beginning of the “special period,” which coincides with the arrival of international hotel capital, and the most intense “touristization” of the territory. The planning system is complex, well structured, and stands out due to its public and social function.
In short, in Cuba, two models are combined: on the one hand, tourist development areas are planned in accordance with the urban planning system, on the other hand, the Cuban commitment to tourism development has had to encourage a strong entrance of foreign capital to bolster the island’s tourist capacities through joint ventures.
Definitely, despite Cuba’s complex and strict urban planning system, its reliance on tourism development and foreign direct investment is nevertheless transforming cities such as Havana and Varadero. Just as the economic changes in the 1990s paved the way for tourist development in Cuba, the recent normalizing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba will also bring an influx in foreign direct investment, and with it, significant changes to Cuba’s cities.
Jesús M. González Pérez was a Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford’s Center for Latin American Studies in the fall of 2016.
