Tourism in Cuba is torrid but what about when Castro is gone?
Tourism in Cuba has been booming, but observers wonder what will happen when Fidel Castro, widely believed to be on his death bed, either steps down or succumbs to cancer.
The boom comes despite a long-standing ban on American Tourists. Even without US visitors, more than than 2.3 million travelers visited the country in 2005, according to Cuba’s government. Most of the tourists come from Canada, Britain, Italy, Spain and Mexico.
Ten years ago, that number was 742,000.
For an American, getting to Cuba is problematic at best, illegal at worst.
A U.S. embargo on trade and travel to Cuba has been in effect for more than 40 years. There are a few exceptions to the ban, and journalists are allowed.
Cuba happily accommodates illegal American tourists, however, by not stamping passports. Cuba desperately needs tourist dollars and an unknown number of Americans each year visit the country illegally; if caught, however, fines can be stiff.
Visitors quickly find that many of the paint-peeled buildings in Habana Vieja or Old Havana are literally falling down. Old American cars — Chevy Bel-Airs, Studebaker Hawks and fin-topped Cadillacs from the 1960s — roar through the city, leading some to say Cuba does not have a car museum…it is a car museum.
Cash-strapped but creative Cubans find ingenious ways to get parts and keep the old cars running, sometimes by smuggling auto parts into the country or by making substitutions.
While most of the Old City is in disrepair, there is some building going on. There are reports the Cuban government has invested more than $200 million in taxes from the tourist trade in the historic neighborhood,
Visitors find relics of the past such as posters and billboards spouting communist platitudes about equality and solidarity. There are also anti-US posters, though Cubans are generally very friendly to American visitors.
But the Cuban economy is hurting. It is not unusual to find engineers and doctors driving cabs to earn cash.
Tourist highlights of Havana include the cathedral, the museum of the city, and an alleyway painted in santeria-inspired images by a renowned muralist.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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