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Embodiment and Tourism.
Embodiment and Tourism.
Wednesday, 13 July 2016: 09:00-10:30
Location: Hörsaal 22 (Juridicum)
RC54 The Body in the Social Sciences (host committee) Language: English
This session is about the peculiarities between the “all-inclusive” and the individual tourism and the different impacts they have in a complex and yet unique country like Cuba.
Tourism has always been an economical relief for countries like Cuba given that since the end of the 1950s the government focused on creating areas where tourists from all over the world would be allocated, without coming in full contact with the reality of the nation and its inhabitants. The peninsula of Varadero was then implemented with beach resorts initially created for foreign visitors, and it is only very recently that the Cubans were finally allowed to enter such hotels. All-inclusive resorts accommodate up to 70% of the total room availability of Cuba, while the other 30% is actually offered by people owning bed & breakfast (casas particulares) which, together with the privately owned restaurants (paladares), were recently made legal by the government in order to create self-employed jobs as a solution to the strong unemployment of the last decade.
The ethic of individual travelers eager to discover the culture and get in touch with locals, rather than just sunbathing, provides also a much stronger benefit for the population, in strong contrast with the all-inclusive holidays resorts, which are either owned by the Cuban government or in joint ventures with international hotel chains. Such companies do employ Cubans, generally with very low-paid salaries, and the result is of a less significant impact on the local people’s wealth.
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