Go to your favorite search engine and type in British tourists, or German tourists, or Mexican tourists, or American tourists, or African tourists. There are pages and pages of links in response to your query.
Now type in Cuban tourists and see what you get. What is the favorite travel destination for Cubans?
Here’s another little research exercise; try searching for shopping in various different countries and then run the search for Cuba. How about travel agents in various cities around the world? There are a lot of travel links to Cuba, but I could not find even one for travel from Cuba.
I often read the online travelogues of vacationers in Cuba. They exult in how quaint Cuba is with the old cars, the bicycles, the horse drawn carts. Why it’s almost 19th century! They mention how inventive Cubans are, how they “resolver.” They write about how great it is not to see the trappings of capitalism, how utterly wonderful Cuba is for fending off their evil imperialist neighbor to the north. Then they get on a plane and leave, and go back to their nice comfortable life.
The next time someone laments U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba, ask them how many tourists from Cuba they’ve seen lately.
One of the few consolations in life for me is to read the travelogues of foreigners who visited the island prior to 1959, whether in the Republican (1902-1958) or Colonial periods. It is always better and more convincing to let a foreigner praise your country than to do it yourself. At least that was the case before 1959 when travellers to Cuba were not politically-motivated and their accounts were not tendentious. These books, hundreds of them, have one thing in common — their praise for our country, praise which must be sincere because, unlike today, tourists before 1959 had no reason to conceal or lie about anything. And this praise is much more than praise for Cuba’s natural beauty, but for the carefree and prosperous life of its people, for their customs and traditions, for the frankness and transparency of the Cuban character, for the boundless joie de vivre of the Cuban people and for the courage and willingness to sacrifice all for freedom which Cubans demonstrated all throughout the 19th century in their epic struggle for independence. After 1902, the praise of the Cuban people remains the same but to it is added respect for Cuban society and its institutions, and, particularly, for the fact that Republican Cuba was free of the institutionalized racism which plagued its Northern neighbor for most of the 20th century.
More than one visitor referred to Cuba as Eden and regretted having to leave it. Many never were able to leave but made our country their home.
These unsolicited testimonials prove that Cuba’s story is really one of “Paradise Lost” rather than “Paradise [Re]Gained.”
Ziva,
Here is a twist to your search for Cuban tourists. Type in “Cuban sex tourists” in the major search engine and you will get the reality of what Cuban tourism under the Castro dictatorship is all about.
Yes, in his last years Castro has devolved into a Caribbean Tiberius, exploiting children sexually for his own profit and pleasure. He always exploited them in every other way, having replaced education with indoctrination and introduced compulsory child labor in Cuba, or, rather, child slavery, since children are not even compensated for their work as field hands. And yet, the mainstream media’s favorite way of “proving” what a “humanitarian” Castro is, has always been to misrepresent what he has done for (actually to) Cuba’s children.
Delacova, I’m well aware of sex tourism in Cuba. In fact, you would not believe the number of emails I receive inquiring about such. Especially heartbreaking is the exploitation of Cuban children.
Yes it’s like a communist pavillion at Disney’s Epcot center. Use yoru capitalist money to enjoy life without capitalism. That is until you get tired of that and decide to go back to your capitalist home.
The same people that come over here and say how we are violating their rights.
Yes it’s like a communist pavillion at Disney’s Epcot center. Use yoru capitalist money to enjoy life without capitalism. That is until you get tired of that and decide to go back to your capitalist home.
The same people that come over here and say how we are violating their rights.