CULTURE-TOURISm: Cuba Brushes up its Tourist Image

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 16 1997 (IPS) - Cuba’s cultural image has been suffering because of tourists – particularly from Italy – who arrive here in search of cheap and easy sex but the authors of “Travel to the Identity of an Island” seek to change all this.

According to one of the authors, Cuban poet and journalist Alex Fleites, the idea of the new book is to sell Cuba’s culture, in contrast to the island’s growing fame as a paradise of “sexual tourism.”

Fleites worked during several months with Italian journalist Aldo Garzia on producing the tourist-cultural guidebook, which has been published and distributed here and in Italy.

“The main focus of the book is the rich culture of this country, understood in the broadest sense,” Fleites told IPS.

The authors wrote monographic articles about 28 Cuban personalities whose fame goes beyond the borders of the island, such as singer Benny More and pianist Ernesto Lecuona. Also included are Jose Raul Capablanca, Latin America’s first world champion in chess, romantic poet Jose Maria Heredia, painter Wilfredo Lam and Carlos Finlay, the scientist who discovered the transmitting agent for yellow fever.

“Travel to the identity of an island” offers the reader information about the world of Santeria – an African-Cuban religion, as well as cinema, music, photography and, in general, art “made in Cuba.”

The book also tells the stories of distinguished Italians who were born or worked in Cuba, or who played an important role in national politics. For example Italo Calvino, who was born on the island, and Orestes Ferrera, who was an official in the Cuban army in the war of independence against Spain at the end of the last century.

Cuban specialists note that more than a few Italian vacationers come to the island in search of a young boy or girl, preferably mestizos, who will help them live out the fantasy of a “great Caribbean love.”

The story of the young prostitute with a sexagenarian from Rome, Naples or Milan who spends all of his yearly savings is commonplace in the island’s 17 tourist regions. A 1996 survey carried out by the Italian newspaper, Viaggiare, gave Cuba five stars for “its general erotic level,” and declared it a paradise for those seeking sexual pleasure.

The Ministry of Tourism says that the influx of Italian visitors climbed from 24,900 in 1991 to 113,705 in 1995 and 192,297 in 1996.

Italy went from being fifth principal source of tourists to Cuba in 1991, to first place last year. The arrival of tourists from Italy grew nearly 70 percent last year compared to 1995 and the number is expected to rise again this year.

Italian interest in Cuba is part of a much broader phenomenon in Europe, which is converting countries like France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Portugal into the fastest growing sources of tourists to the island.

In 1996, the number of visitors from France increased 82.6 percent, from Great Britain, 43.8 percent, from Germany, 40.1 percent, Portugal, 37.5 percent, and Spain, 31.5 percent.

“More Europeans are coming every day to this country, which offers a rich culture. He who does not engage that culture, he who does not manage to discover and enjoy it, cannot say that he knows the island,” says Fleites.

“That is why we sought to include brief studies about Cuban art, summaries of the lives of the most important personalities on the island, and practical information for the tourist who is truly interested in learning about a country in the guidebook,” he says.

The Italian book offers short descriptions of the cultural events that are held periodically in Cuba, such as the Festival of New Latin American Cinema, the Biennial of Havana, the International Ballet Festival, and the International Guitar Festival. More than hotels, bars and discos, the guidebook includes references to cinemas, libraries, museums and theaters in Havana, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa, the tourist circuit most favored by Italians.

Trinity, a colonial city 452 kilometers from Havana, was declared part of the Cultural Heritage of Humanity by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Santiago de Cuba, 967 kilometers from Havana, is the second- most important city in Cuba. Baracoa, 1,069 kilometers from Havana, was the first village founded by the Spanish colonizers of Cuba.

The readers of the guidebook will also find information about the broad network of cultural institutions in the Caribbean island and examples of the sports and health tourism being promoted by the Ministry of Tourism.

The book ends with an extensive bibliography in Italian designed for readers with varying degrees of interest in Cuba – including a thick selection of texts by revolutionary hero Che Guevara.