“Financing from abroad might also play quite an important role,” said Spadoni, a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Center for Inter-American Policy and Research.
Some Cubans interviewed on a recent trip to Varadero said expenses were paid by relatives visiting from the US, a flow that is up 20 percent since US President Barack Obama lifted travel restrictions in April on Cuban-Americans visiting the island.
But Obama has made clear he will keep a 47-year-old US trade embargo on Cuba in place for the moment to press Cuban leaders to improve human rights and political freedoms. Havana, while agreeing to talks on migration and other issues, has said it will not make “concessions” for improved ties.
FOR THE PEOPLE
With the help of foreign investors, Cuba reluctantly developed its tourism industry in the mid-1990s in response to the deep economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, its chief benefactor and ally for decades.
“All the money made here is for the people,” proclaims a banner at the entrance to Varadero, a 20km peninsula of white-sand beaches lined with big hotels.
This slogan reflects the long-used government argument that tourism revenues are employed to benefit all of Cuba’s people by helping to pay for free health care and education.
Cuba has some 55,000 hotel rooms managed by the state, many in association with foreign hotel heavyweights such as Sol Melia of Spain, the French firm Accor or Jamaica’s Sandals Resorts.
Attracted by the country’s beaches and enduring revolutionary mystique, 2.3 million foreign tourists, mostly from Canada and in Europe, visited Cuba last year, which brought the island US$2.5 billion in revenues and made tourism one of Cuba’s main sources of hard currency.
Raul Castro said in a speech earlier this month that the number of international tourists is up, but revenues are down compared to last year.
Both numbers are expected to grow if the US Congress approves a proposed bill that would allow all Americans to freely visit Cuba, currently prohibited by the US embargo against the island 145km from Key West, Florida.
But for now, Cuba is looking to Cubans to keep its hotels humming, and people like Alexis are happy to help.
“This is just fantasy. Real life starts again on Monday when we get back to Havana,” he said between sips of a last mojito as the sun set over Varadero.
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