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Tourism in Cuba is a relatively unexplored area in terms of research. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to shed some light on the past, present and future potential of tourism in Cuba. The author has monitored trends of tourism in Cuba since 1994. He visited Cuba for the first time in 1997. He met President Fidel Castro in 1998, and had a brief but friendly conversation. The research methodology included a combination of personal observations, e´lite interviews and desk research. The article analyses tourism in Cuba during three different phases between 1945 and 2002. Based on his research, the author predicts that by 2010. Cuba will become the number one tourist destination in the Caribbean, a position it enjoyed for a long time until the revolution in 1959. In conclusion, the key arguments to justify this prediction for 2010 are presented.

In response to its profound economic crisis, in the 1990s Cuba adopted a tourism‐based development strategy. As an approach to development, tourism has been both heralded and critiqued. One concern is that for less diversified economies it has large imported input requirements. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Cuba's efforts to address this weakness.

The paper draws on interviews conducted with Cuban policy makers and researchers working in the area of tourism, and one hotelier operating in Cuba. Also, extensive secondary data collected while conducting the fieldwork in Cuba and relevant existing literature are reviewed.

It is found that Cuba has increased significantly its reliance on domestic production for inputs for its tourist sector since the mid‐1990s, thereby reducing its dependence on imported inputs.

These findings suggest that, by reconfiguring domestic production to provide inputs for the tourism sector, foreign exchange leakages typically associated with tourist development in less diversified economies can be diminished and that it can provide an infusion of foreign exchange and investment that benefits the local economy.

This case presents an alternative to the neoliberal approach to policy making in the Global South, one that has the potential to avoid some of the negative social and economic consequences of that approach.

In addition to highlighting the alternative represented by Cuba's approach to tourism, the paper evaluates the extent to which it approximated the novel strategy of development proposed by the neostructuralists almost simultaneously. It concludes that Cuba's approach did approximate the neostructural model in a number of important ways.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the formal political, legal and economic institutional legitimacy challenges for (US-based) multinational corporations (MNCs) attempting to enter the Cuban market, discuss the key local constituencies in Cuba that are able to grant legitimacy and sketch out respective strategies to deal with each of these formal institutional challenges.

A qualitative research approach comprising semi-structured executive interviews was used, combined with the analysis of media accounts and recent governmental policies and developments. The authors interpreted the gathered data and information based on institutional theory.

This paper sketches out specific legitimacy challenges for (US-based) MNCs when entering Cuba and discusses strategies to manage these challenges.

The authors provide an application of institutional theory in the specific context of Cuba and so demonstrate the value of applying this theoretical lens to better understand the local legitimacy processes in this particular emerging market environment.

This study presents a framework of strategies (US-based) MNCs may use to inform their entry strategies into the Cuban market, based on an analysis of the local institutional environment, legitimacy pressures and constituencies able to grant or withdraw the approval and support of foreign MNCs.

This paper is an original application of institutional theory to the emerging market of Cuba using a qualitative research approach, and so contributes to an emerging stream of research studying this market context from an academic and practical perspective.

Cuba’s 1959 Revolution brought about dramatic changes not only in that island‐nation but also in the USA. Cubans, and later Cuban‐Americans, have changed the face of Miami and south Florida. The economic and social successes of Cuban‐Americans, the third largest Latino group in the USA, are prevalent in scholarly and popular literature. In this annotated bibliography, the author presents journal articles, chapters in books, books, and human rights reports, published between 1990 and 1998, as well as World Wide Web sites, that discuss the Cuban‐American experience. Articles from the popular literature are not included, nor are materials that deal primarily with Cuba or Cuba‐USA relations.

The Caribbean Island of Cuba, only 90 miles from the US mainland, has remained one of the world's few examples of a centralized communist economy since Fidel Castro overthrew the government in 1959. The country has declined in recent years, most significantly since the fall of Cuba's key trading partner and ally, the former Soviet Union. Recently, under the direction of Fidel's brother, Raúl Castro, the island appears to be slowly loosening some restrictions and promoting new venture creation by allowing more private enterprises and forcing laid‐off state employees to consider entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether entrepreneurship will be the answer to improving Cuba's economy.

Using Graham's framework of conditions necessary for encouraging entrepreneurship, Cuba is examined with actual observations by the authors after a July 2010 State Department‐sanctioned research trip to observe entrepreneurship within the centralized economy.

Further enhancements to encourage new venture creation in Cuba are identified, along with areas for future research on new venture creation.

The value of this research lies in the fact that there are many paths to create an entrepreneurial economy in an emerging market. Cuba represents a nascent entrepreneurial economy with many barriers to overcome based upon its legacy of communism. The country and market has seldom been examined and there is a dearth of literature on Cuba and other countries trying to move immediately from communism to capitalism when their economy is in crisis.

Provides a bibliography of materials about Cuba and the Cuban Revolution published in the UK, Australia, Cuba, and the USA. Lists solidarity organizations, publishers and works by and about people who lived in Cuba before and after the Revolution. Aims to be of use to students of modern history, Latin America, and revolutionary politics.

Features a realistic perspective of the current hospitality and tourism paradigm in Cuba. Previews the newly released hospitality and tourism education strategy to be rolled out in 2003. Provides an evaluation of the tourism and hospitality industry environment, education environment, workforce and change in policy. The authors made three research trips to Cuba in 1997, 2001 and 2002. A series of elite interviews were conducted in Cuba, Jamaica and the UK with senior Cuban policymakers. Current data and views from Cuban partners and practitioners are used to inform the discussion. Cuba continues to be one of the most mystical tourist destinations in the world with a phenomenal growth rate during recent years. The new tourism education strategy is a key for Cuba to once again become the number one destination in the Caribbean.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of Cuba’s medical system, its health tourism and related diplomacy in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic for the global response to disease outbreaks. In addition to Cuba being a destination for leisure tourists in the Caribbean, the renowned Cuban medical system attracts thousands of health tourists seeking low-cost but high-quality treatment. This paper demonstrates how Cuba’s unique response to the pandemic, which included sending thousands of medical staff abroad, can inform structural and global issues and contribute to a more sustainable future.

The research in this study is primarily drawn from published academic and media sources that address Cuba’s medical system, its health tourism and the government’s response to the recent pandemic. The author, a political scientist and an author of many publications on Cuba, and the PI of a study focused on Cuban tourism, will also draw on her expertise.

This paper addresses the Cuban Government’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic and places this response in the context of Cuba’s medical system, its health tourism and related diplomacy. It reveals key lessons from Cuba’s response for other tourist destination states and, more broadly, for the worldwide response to global outbreaks and the management of health systems. The findings will further research in diplomacy and tourism as well as inform policy and practice.

This paper explores an ongoing topic and thus further research will be required following the pandemic.

This research note offers important implications for practice including providing accurate, research-based information that challenges misinformation about Cuba’s health system, its medical diplomacy program, health tourism and its response to COVID-19. It offers valuable lessons for public health authorities including the importance of preventative health measures, community medicine and the benefits of working globally to combat outbreaks through the sharing of medical staff and resources.

This research note reveals the health, political and social implications of Cuba’s response in this time of crisis. It shows the benefits of a robust but low-cost community-based medicine program, medical diplomacy and how a state’s response during crisis can moderate the global inequities and injustices such as unequal access to care that often accompany disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.

This research note is an early analysis of a response by an important tourist destination country to the pandemic. The author anticipates that the information provided to the international community via this open access journal will offer practical implications for the ongoing global efforts to manage this crisis and contribute to the research on tourism, diplomacy, justice and health policy.

The Cuban population is going through a process of demographic change and accelerated aging, which, together with a difficult economic situation, places the older adults in a complex economic reality, especially in the most vulnerable communities. This paper aims to analyze the housing situation of the older adults in a vulnerable community in Santiago de Cuba during a period of particular economic difficulty.

The study analyzes the housing situation of a sample of people over 60 years of age (n = 325) in a vulnerable community in the city of Santiago de Cuba. A structured interview was used for data collection.

The results show that most of the people over 60 years of age interviewed considered their homes to be in a poor state of repair. A significant part of the homes were built with precarious materials and had cracked walls, leaks, problems with the functioning of the toilet, broken pipes, etc. In addition, most of the houses were poorly equipped, with a large number of them lacking refrigerators, cell phones or computers or other electrical appliances (heater, shower, stove, etc.). Women, people with black skin and people over 75 years of age were in a particularly precarious housing situation.

Demographic changes and the expected aging of the population in Cuba mean that meeting the needs of the older adults is expected to become increasingly complex. The design of public policies and administrative management should take into consideration the housing needs of people over 60 years of age in vulnerable communities, with special attention to women, racialized people and older adults.

The research was conducted based on the information provided by a particularly vulnerable group in Cuba (older adults), about which there is limited information available, and the data were collected during a particularly challenging time for the Cuban economy: the post-COVID-19 pandemic period. The challenges of conducting research of this nature in Cuba and the period during which data collection took place form the basis of the originality of this manuscript.

Cuba’s “Special Period”, launched in 1990, was a reform program aimed at reversing the economic deterioration associated with the rapid disintegration of the Comecon trading bloc. It featured the attraction of foreign investment and tourism, privatization, currency reform, and a reorientation of trade patterns. Initially, the “Special Period” was unsuccessful as the Cuban economy further declined. Since 1994, there have been signs of improving conditions despite continued hardships. The “Special Period” has not brought about any significant political reform to accompany its economic reform.