Geografia Turitica De Cuba

Caso Real sobre un destino turístico en cuba

Por
Rosaisela Meriño Cervantes

Presentado a
David Peña

Universidad del magdalena
Santa Marta, magdalena
Abril -15-2011

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Industry strategy

Cuba’s tourism promotion strategy is built around three main attractions: beach
resorts, history and colonial architecture, and nature and ecotourism. The tourism
ministry has targetedeight regions around the island for tourism development;
initially, Havana and the Varadero beach resort received the lion’s share of
investment, and now the emphasis has shifted to other regions.
Beach resorts.
The pristine beaches of Varadero, a 22-kilometer peninsula two
hours’ drive from Havana, have long been a refuge for Cubans and foreigners alike.
Much of the peninsula was onceowned by the Dupont family; in 1931, Irene
Dupont de Nemours completed construction of a mansion, with Cuban mahogany
and Italian marble throughout, where she spent a few winter months each year.
The mansion serves today as a restaurant and guest house, and its servant quarters
now house the pro shop of Varadero’s golf course.
Except for longstanding residential areas and a nature reserve on thepeninsula’s south
side, Varadero’s geography is dominated by tourism development. Club Med, Barcelo,
Sol Melia, Sandals, Superclubs, and other international resort brands are present. One
third of Cuba’s hotel capacity and nearly one fourth of tourism jobs are here. The
peninsula consumes up to 50 megawatts of energy per day, all supplied by Energas, a
Canadian-Cuban joint venture thatcaptures, cleans, and burns the highly sulfurous
natural gas that is a by-product of local crude oil production
Colonial architecture.
Cuba was settled and colonized by the Spanish in the 16th
century, and the island today holds some of the most extensive areas of colonial architecture in the Americas. Cuban officials are working to preserve and restore
this architecture, fully aware that they areenhancing Cuba as a tourism destination
as they safeguard their national heritage.
Havana’s colonial center is the most extensive and varied in Cuba, and its
restoration effort is unique. Under the direction of the city’s historian, Eusebio Leal,
every dollar of Old Havana’s tourism income is spent on restoration of buildings,
monuments, housing, and other neighborhood assets. A governmentdecree puts
Leal’s office in charge of every zoning, land use, construction, and design decision
in its two-square-kilometer area. A specialized workforce and a network of
enterprises under Leal’s direction is executing dozens of renovation projects at a
time. (See the study “Rescuing Old Havana” at www.lexingtoninstitute.org/cuba.)
Ecotourism.
Cuba’s natural environment offers manyopportunities for ecotourism development: the mountains, caves,
and geological formations of the Vinales valley in western Cuba;
the forests and wildlife of the Rosario, Escambray, and Sierra
Maestra mountain ranges; the wetlands of the Zapata peninsula.
Ecotourism development is only in its incipient stages in Cuba,
but its evolution will have an important bearing on environmental
protection.While Cuba has environmental protection policies, it is also true that
many of Cuba’s pristine areas, such as those described by Benchley, are
undisturbed simply because Cuba has lacked resources to exploit them. A future
flow of tourists attracted by these assets can give the country an opportunity to
earn profits by protecting nature.

INTRODUCTION
El turismo se institucionaliza en Cuba apartir de 1919 con la creación de la Comisión
Nacional para el Fomento del Turismo, presidida por el Alcalde Municipal de la Habana. Por entonces, el turismo constituyó la tercera fuente de ingreso de divisas al país (Quintana et all 2005, 132).
En el año 2009 el sector fue sometido a reformas de infraestructura, por lo que algunas cadenas están siendo absorbidas por otras de manera estrtegicas...