Development Tourism: Lessons from Cuba

The interconnections between globalisation, development and tourism are a crucial nexus in analyses of North-South exchange and in relation to 'empire'. Tourism is widely perceived as a key approach to poverty alleviation in the Third World, but many are ambivalent to the widespread development of tourism initiatives: President Fidel Castro refers to it as 'the evil we have to have'. Drawing on her experiences working in an NGO in Cuba, the author examines the nature of development, while investigating tourism motivations and experiences. Using a multi-sited ethnographic approach and drawing on a wide range of issues including social change, development, globalisation, social theory, and sustainability, she develops tourism analysis at both theoretical and applied levels. The author reflects on the potential contributions of NGO operated tourism to a rights-based development and also reflects on how the Cuban case connects with broader debates surrounding transformation, capacity building, social action and solidarity. Readers will come away with a complex understanding of Cuba and its remarkable approach to tourism and social development that so often compels tourists to become agents of development through solidarity.