US/Cuba: Spring flings in Havana may be short-lived
One month before spring break, JetBlue became the third US carrier to announce cuts in service to the island. No one is pulling out, but the travel industry's new mandate is adjusting to the reality beyond the Cuba hype. Pricey cabs, so-so infrastructure, limited internet and scalper-level hotel room rates, which reached $650 last year according to the Economist Intelligent Unit, have put off travellers. There's still plenty of charm in the streets of La Habana Vieja and on all those unblemished beaches that necklace the Caribbean island. But tapping it will depend on the ability of Havana's floundering regime not just to adapt to the disruptive global economy, but also to write a new narrative that promotes the island's future as much as its past. This is not the first time Cuba has tried soft power to rescue the revolution. Fidel Castro warmed to tourism, in part as a lifeline after the Soviet Union collapsed and left the island's accounts bereft. He talked up the country's natural beauties and its crime-free streets. Still, he was determined to control not just the levers of the industry but also the behavior of its visitors, abhorring the "tourism of casinos and prostitution." Instead, the island's dysfunctional economy beckoned sex tourists, while prostitution and black market dollars offered desperate Cubans a bridge to escape. Talk of tourism was revived as Cuba's latest underwriter, Venezuela, slid into disarray. Now the normalization of ties with the US (assuming Donald Trump won't rebuild that wall) has seemingly turbocharged that prospect. So how will the new Cuba flog its wonders to the world, and can the reform-minded Raul Castro do what his brother could not -- leverage the revolution and have it, too? A lot depends on the tourists. For years, Europeans and Canadians flocked to the island for a frugal equatorial getaway, with a dollop of communist realism. Many Latin Americans went in for ideological tourism, pulled by the historical aura of an island nation that played the tropical David to the gringo Goliath. For the moment, pioneering US travelers seem enchanted less by a new venue for spring break than by the allure of a once blacklisted nation with last century's automobiles and last century's politics.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2017-03-13/general/us-cuba-spring-flings-in-havana-may-be-short-lived
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US/Cuba: Spring flings in Havana may be short-lived
One month before spring break, JetBlue became the third US carrier to announce cuts in service to the island. No one is pulling out, but the travel industry's new mandate is adjusting to the reality beyond the Cuba hype. Pricey cabs, so-so infrastructure, limited internet and scalper-level hotel room rates, which reached $650 last year according to the Economist Intelligent Unit, have put off travellers. There's still plenty of charm in the streets of La Habana Vieja and on all those unblemished beaches that necklace the Caribbean island. But tapping it will depend on the ability of Havana's floundering regime not just to adapt to the disruptive global economy, but also to write a new narrative that promotes the island's future as much as its past. This is not the first time Cuba has tried soft power to rescue the revolution. Fidel Castro warmed to tourism, in part as a lifeline after the Soviet Union collapsed and left the island's accounts bereft. He talked up the country's natural beauties and its crime-free streets. Still, he was determined to control not just the levers of the industry but also the behavior of its visitors, abhorring the "tourism of casinos and prostitution." Instead, the island's dysfunctional economy beckoned sex tourists, while prostitution and black market dollars offered desperate Cubans a bridge to escape. Talk of tourism was revived as Cuba's latest underwriter, Venezuela, slid into disarray. Now the normalization of ties with the US (assuming Donald Trump won't rebuild that wall) has seemingly turbocharged that prospect. So how will the new Cuba flog its wonders to the world, and can the reform-minded Raul Castro do what his brother could not -- leverage the revolution and have it, too? A lot depends on the tourists. For years, Europeans and Canadians flocked to the island for a frugal equatorial getaway, with a dollop of communist realism. Many Latin Americans went in for ideological tourism, pulled by the historical aura of an island nation that played the tropical David to the gringo Goliath. For the moment, pioneering US travelers seem enchanted less by a new venue for spring break than by the allure of a once blacklisted nation with last century's automobiles and last century's politics.<br/>
