Cuba Challenge: Cubans and tourism - help them benefit from the tourist industry

Utrecht, 27 September 2004.

A 'Cuba Challenge' forum is being organized in the NH Hotel Parque Central in Havana, Cuba, from 30 September to 3 October 2004. The forum will be attended by, among others, ten tour operators from the Netherlands, and will be considering the future of tourism in Cuba. The important question to be raised is the extent to which Cubans themselves benefit from the foreign tourist industry which, by definition, does business with the Cuban regime. The very real challenge is to bring about radical change to this situation.

The parties to this press release do not wish Cuba to become isolated from the rest of the world, while deploring the fact that most of the income from the tourist sector goes to line the coffers of the Cuban state. Cubans themselves are not allowed to start up their own business in the tourist branch. And neither are Cubans permitted to work for foreign investors. It is the Cuban authorities that function as the state employment agency and select people on the basis of political loyalty. Moreover, the state pockets some 90% of the dollar salary that foreign investors pay to the employment agency. And most distressing of all is the 'apartheid' between foreign tourists and Cubans, who have no access to tourist hotels and resorts.

What can tourists do? Ordinary Cubans have no recourse to world literature or more general sources of information. The organizations from the Netherlands mentioned below support tourist initiatives for Cuba to help take the inhabitants of Cuba out of their position of literary isolation: tourists who travel to the island could take Spanish language books[1] with them and give them to a Cuban or leave them with an 'independent library'.

How can the Dutch travel branch also help Cubans benefit from the tourist industry? Travel organizations can actually make a very real contribution by drawing their customers' attention to this campaign, and by enclosing a campaign folder with the travel documents. Travel organizations can also place a link on their own websites to our campaign website (www.networkcuba.org).

CLAT Nederland
CNV
Cuba Futuro
Glasnost in Cuba
Pax Christi Nederland

[1] The Spanish language books (general world literature) can be collected at no charge from Pax Christi Nederland in Utrecht (+31 (30) 233 33 46) and from Cuba Futuro in Amsterdam (+31 (20) 618 39 13).