Of spectacular phantasmal desire: tourism and the Cuban state's complicity in the commodification of its citizens

Carter, Thomas F.

doi:10.1080/02614360802018806

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Her analysis converges with Alcázar's (2010:288) remarks on tourism in the early 1990s becoming a relatively easy target and scapegoat on which to blame the emergence of phenomenasuch as prostitution and the proliferation of illegal drugs-that contradicted the Cuban government's revolutionary ethic and threatened the supposedly unified moral fabric of the Cuban nation. Carter (2008) has a similar take on the matter and considers that in post-Soviet Cuba the tourist came to be seen as a "disease-ridden carrier that 'infects' Cuban citizens" (2008:252).…”

Section: E X P L O I T a T I O N C O M M O D I T I Z A T I O N A mentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaching Difference, Inequality, and Intimacy in Tourism: A View from Cuba

Simoni¹

2018

Journal of Anthropological Research

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Based on ethnography of touristic encounters in Cuba, the article reflects on competing approaches to difference, inequality, and intimacy in tourism and in anthropology. Comparing the understandings of tourists and Cubans involved in these informal engagements, of the Cuban authorities, and of scholars and commentators, three idealized scenarios and modes of interpretation are teased out. Rather than assessing their degree of accuracy or suggesting the primacy of one over the other, the article reflects on their co-presence and competing rationales, focusing on the conditions of their emergence and assessing their epistemological, moral, and political implications. In so doing, it foregrounds how the expectations, desires, and moral underpinnings that inform our findings and interpretative horizons resonate with those of the people we study, opening up different possibilities for estrangement and familiarization, and highlighting what is at stake in these processes both for anthropology and for those with whom we work.

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Section: E X P L O I T a T I O N C O M M O D I T I Z A T I O N A mentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaching Difference, Inequality, and Intimacy in Tourism: A View from Cuba

Simoni¹

2018

Journal of Anthropological Research

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“…Although some authors have stated that tourists do not ''suffer the trials and tribulations of food shortages (and) rationed soap'' (Carter, 2008), this group of tourists did report that the limited marketplace impacted their experience in Cuba. However, this factor of Cuba's destination image will likely continue to shift if Cuba maintains steps to provide more goods and services to international tourists through the continued liberalization of the marketplace.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Garcia Olivares, the previous head of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, described the government philosophy introduced in this period as, ''We have to think like capitalists, but continue being socialists'' (Brotherton, 2008). The tourist flood started in 1991 and quickly became a major source of international currency (Carter, 2008).…”

Section: Forbidden Fruit Versus Tainted Fruitmentioning

confidence: 99%

American tourists in Cuba: Is the communist country a forbidden or a tainted fruit?

Wilson

Látková

2015

Tourism and Hospitality Research

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Americans are the majority of tourists in the Caribbean, but the US embargo against Cuba prevents almost all American tourists from visiting Cuba. This study uses mixed methods to examine a group of American tourists' destination image of Cuba before and after a tour in Cuba. The American tourists in this study described Cuba as a forbidden fruit, a desirable destination that Americans are not allowed to or at least should not visit. On the positive side, travelling to Cuba was seen as a scarce opportunity that has the allure of the prohibited and the attraction of viewing communism from a previous era. Conversely, the image of Cuba was also tainted by the history of political antagonism with America and associated concerns about tourist safety, cost, and a limited market place. However, actual and potential changes in Cuba are likely to heavily impact the destination image in the near future.

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“…Here, Desmond argues, performers are presented to tourists as culturally ideal "specimens" (p. xiii) and that performances are devised to offer (hula) bodies as tourists "expect" to see them. And Carter (2008) describes attempts by the Cuban state to fulfill foreign tourist desires through a process of phantom making whereby individuals are transformed "into an ethereal commodity for tourism" (Carter, 2008, p. 242). I argue that it is through the processes of commodification and its close associate objectification that "poor" Cambodian children have likewise become the objects (the things) of consumption in the volunteer vacation trend and as such should be considered within an understanding of exploitation.…”

Section: Commodification Of Bodiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“So, Child Protection, I'll Make a Quick Point of It Now”: Broadening the Notion of Child Abuse in Volunteering Vacations in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Reas¹

2015

Tourism Review International

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This article is based on a qualitative study of volunteer tourists who spend vacation time with “poor” children in the fashionable volunteer tourist destination of Siem Reap in Cambodia. Although this tourist option is considered a mass niche commodity in the global tourism marketplace, only narrow understandings of child abuse and child protection are generally used when considering this largely well-regarded trend. The World Health Organization definition of child abuse talks about exploitation that may result in actual or potential harm, factors normally not linked to the efforts of well-intentioned vacationers. Bourdieu's notion of “symbolic violence” and Harvey's of “civilized oppression” are, however, concepts that consider the gentle and invisible possibilities of abuse, whereas Giroux argues that abuse to children occurs in even seemingly benign cultural spheres. By using these analytical ideas to move away from thinking that sees only pedophiles and perverts as exemplars of abuse (while in no way making light of these transgressors), attention can be focused onto questions of exploitation and notions of harm to dignity, as well as to considering how these issues may be concealed within this increasingly popular vacation trend.

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Of spectacular phantasmal desire: tourism and the Cuban state's complicity in the commodification of its citizens

Cited by 9 publications

References 25 publications

Approaching Difference, Inequality, and Intimacy in Tourism: A View from Cuba

Approaching Difference, Inequality, and Intimacy in Tourism: A View from Cuba

American tourists in Cuba: Is the communist country a forbidden or a tainted fruit?

“So, Child Protection, I'll Make a Quick Point of It Now”: Broadening the Notion of Child Abuse in Volunteering Vacations in Siem Reap, Cambodia

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