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9 The Promise of Globalization Sustainable Tourism Development and Environmental Policy in Cuba Ricardo Pérez In an era of globalization, it is difficult for economic performance that is not exceptional to lead to development. Pedro Monreal With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist bloc at the start of the 1990s, Cuba suffered a major economic and political setback that forced the island government to consider alternative options for socioeconomic development and reinsertion into a globalized economy. According to estimates, in 1990 commercial trade between the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON, the group of socialist economies formed around the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe) and Cuba accounted for no less than 85 percent of the island’s trading activities.1 Having lost almost the entire market for its export and import products, the Cuban economy basically came to a halt. Soon after the socialist collapse the Cuban government began to look for alternatives to stay afloat in the middle of unprecedented political and economic transformations. Since 1990 Cuba’s transition to a different pattern of economic development has, as Pedro Monreal spells out, depended on three main pillars: “the intensive utilization of natural resources, the access to external rents [remittances], and the limited revenue derived from foreign loans and investment.” An important aspect of the new pattern of development has been the investment by transnational corporations in various strategic economic sectors such as mining and tourism, areas that could help provide the island with rapid access to hard currency and facilitate its global reinsertion. As Monreal argues, tourism development provides the basis of a “new service economy” that relies heavily on the “intensive use of natural resources.”2 Sustainable Tourism Development and Environmental Policy in Cuba 161 In the Caribbean region in general, tourism has followed a well-established pattern of development since the 1950s. The postwar period ushered in deliberate efforts by the majority of the Caribbean island governments to build and modernize their economies around the “natural resources that were already in place—sand, sun, sea, and friendly people.”3 In addition, because of its multiplier effects on the economy tourism became a convenient and reliable way of earning highly sought hard currencies. As George Gmelch correctly notes, “the outward ripple of tourist dollars fosters demand for goods and services in other areas. Farmers, fisherman [sic], and merchants benefit because they must grow and supply more fish, meat, poultry, eggs, vegetables, and fruit to feed the large number of visitors. The tourists’ desire for curios and souvenirs generates work for local artists and craftspeople. Early on, the large ripple effect is in the construction of hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, and other facilities needed to cater to visitors.” The number of international tourists who have visited the Caribbean region since the end of the Second World War has increased steadily; for example, in 1959 1.3 million tourists arrived in the region, in 1965 the number was close to 4 million, and in 1985 the number increased to 10 million. By the year 2000, more than 17 million international tourists were traveling to the Caribbean region.4 Therefore, it is not surprising that most Caribbean islands have come to depend heavily on revenues from international tourism to promote national economic growth. In Cuba’s case, since the start of the Special Period the country has set in place in its coastal areas an infrastructure of hotels, roads, and beach resorts catering mainly to international tourists; and tourism was particularly significant to the island’s economic recovery after the late 1990s because the industry had an impact on nearly all sectors of the national economy—from telecommunications to construction—and all areas of culture and society.5 But while revolutionary Cuba can be considered a relative newcomer to the international tourism industry, recent data show that the country is on a steady path to be among the leading destinations in the Caribbean. For example, by 2004 Cuba was receiving more than two million tourists, with revenues from the industry soaring to well over $2 billion. Moreover, during the second half of the first decade of the twenty-first century, according to Cuba’s National Office of Statistics , the number of international tourists to Cuba remained steady at around 2.2–2.3 million a year, with revenues in 2008, for example, standing at $2.5 billion. Figures for the number of tourists in 2009, 2010, and 2011, respectively, were 2,429,809, 2,531...

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