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Economic Reform: Tourism in Cuba
Cuba remains one of the few countries with an economy established by a centralized government. Among those countries, only Cuba possesses a large international tourism sector. The fall of the USSR and the U.S embargo imposed in 1961 affected Cuba’s tourism sector. Cuba was dependant on the USSR and after its collapse saw tourism as an option to reduce the effects of the crisis. Cuba’s touring numbers began to decrease during the 1960s through the 1980s due to the U.S embargo during the Cold War. Additionally, almost 62,000 tourists traveled to Cuba in 1960, 4180 tourists in 1961 and then almost zero over the next 20 years. Also, new hotels were built and old hotels were renovated to draw more international visitors. When Raul Castro rose to power in 2008, he implemented infrastructure reform to help reduce the effects of the Cuban revolution. The Cuban government built beach resorts in order to further expand tourism. Castro’s reform policies led to increased tourism and large economic success in Cuba. In fact 2.7 million people visited Cuba in 2011, while only 340,000 people toured Cuba in 1990. The National GDP increased from 30.69 billion in 2002 to 114.10 billion in 2010. While infrastructure reform benefitted Cuba’s GDP and tourism numbers, average spending decreased from $1,310 in 1995 to $876 in 2015. Furthermore, Cuba ranks one of the lowest for returns in the travel industry. Contributing to the low rank: low quality food, poor customer service, and affordability. These issues must be resolved in order to maintain Cuba’s tourism economically in the long-term. NCSTATE27 (talk) 05:34, 17 November 2017 (UTC)