Historical Evolution and Spatial Development of Tourism in Cuba, 1919–2017: What is Next?

Tourism Research in Cuba: Gaps in Knowledge and Challenges for Sustainable Tourism

“…In the decades that followed, growth in the tourism sector was dramatic. Between 1990 and 2007, tourism grew 11% per annum in Cuba, which was nearly double the rate of tourism growth globally [2], swelling from approximately 300,000 visitors in 1990 to more than two million visitors in 2004. In 2014, visitor arrivals in Cuba were second only to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean region, outpacing the Bahamas and Puerto Rico by approximately double [4].…”

“…Tourism is a rapidly growing sector in Cuba, and it is projected to grow at rates that exceed the average projected growth rates for the Caribbean, and the world overall [1]. In the first quarter of the 20th century, Cuba dominated the Caribbean as the top destination, and it remained in that position into the 1950s, receiving almost 36% of the region's tourists [2]. Tourism was boosted by prohibition in the US in the 1920s and 1930s, and arrivals reached a peak of 272,000 in 1958, when approximately 88% of tourists arrived from the US [2].…”

“…In the first quarter of the 20th century, Cuba dominated the Caribbean as the top destination, and it remained in that position into the 1950s, receiving almost 36% of the region's tourists [2]. Tourism was boosted by prohibition in the US in the 1920s and 1930s, and arrivals reached a peak of 272,000 in 1958, when approximately 88% of tourists arrived from the US [2]. Tourism plummeted after the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro took power in 1959, and growth remained stagnant through the 1970s.…”

“…The Ministry of Tourism also plans to more than double the number of international-quality rooms by 2030 (from 50,000 to 108,000) to accommodate the projected 10 million international arrivals, plus an additional 5 million projected to arrive as cruise passengers [13]. These ambitious plans have been questioned [2,13], with concern regarding key barriers to tourism development, including burdensome bureaucracy (e.g., restrictions on private enterprise growth), the US embargo (e.g., restricted supply chain network), governmental price regulation (e.g., dual currency system), and high taxation, as well as a lack of capital and financial infrastructure (e.g., geographically limited transportation system and internet access, constraints on loans and foreign investment) [14][15][16][17]. Despite these challenges, scholars widely agree that Cuba urgently needs to adopt sustainable tourism principles and practices if the industry is to be successfully harnessed as a means to achieve national development goals.…”

“…Studies concentrate on growth trends (past, current, projected), noting key challenges or barriers to Cuban tourism development, and offering policy recommendations to advance growth [18][19][20]. The research is almost exclusively based on secondary data and speculative scenarios of future development, with a number of scholars underscoring the dearth of empirical studies on tourism development in Cuba [2,13,15,21,22]. Even on a regional scale, there is a notable absence of tourism research that focuses on a Latin American or Caribbean context [14], as well as nations within a transitioning economy [16,23,24].…”