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Havana Trade Expo Attracts from Most US Districts
The following is taken from a Cuba Policy Foundation Press Release from September 17, 2002. For more information about this article or the Cuba Policy Foundation, contact Brian Alexander at (202) 321-CUBA (2822)
Washington, D.C., October 8, 2002 – A Cuba Policy Foundation preliminary analysis of companies in attendance at the U.S. agricultural trade exposition, held in Havana, Cuba, September 26-30, reveals that companies from at least 104 U.S. Congressional districts were present. The total states with companies that participated were 33, yielding 66 Senators whose states had companies present. The number of Republican Congressional Districts represented by at least one company was no fewer than 49, and no fewer than 55 Democratic districts. 29 Republican Senate seats were represented, along with 37 Democratic Senate seats.
Notably, companies from the districts of key Republican embargo supporters from south Florida, such as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, were present at the event. The state of Florida was the most widely represented at the trade exposition, with 33 of the 288 companies bearing Florida addresses, according to the event’s organizers.
At least 700 American business people attended the agricultural exposition, with 288 U.S. companies participating. The total projected sales of U.S. farm and food products to Cuba resulting from the exposition are estimated to be at least $89 million. This figure brings the total purchases by Cuba of American food and agricultural products in 2002 to over $200 million dollars. American food sales to Cuba were made legal in an October 2000, U.S. law.
It is widely speculated that sales of U.S. products to Cuba will increase political pressures in the United States for liberalizing the four decades-old U.S. embargo of Cuba. According to Brian Alexander, executive director of Cuba Policy Foundation, who attended the Havana exposition, “Americans see a clear connection between changing U.S. policy and advancing U.S. interests in Cuba. For example, ending the U.S. travel ban would increase demand for American goods in Cuba, so it was no surprise to hear countless Americans at the trade exposition say they would like the travel ban to end in order to increase their potential sales to Cuba.”
Lifting the travel ban is widely viewed as the fastest way to expand the Cuban market for U.S. foods and farm products. If the travel ban were lifted, Cuba Policy Foundation estimates that a minimum of 500,000 Americans would travel to Cuba in the first year, with over 1.4 million annual American visitors to Cuba by the fifth year. This large presence of Americans in Cuba would dramatically increase the demand and potential market for American brands and U.S. quality food products. Cuba Policy Foundation estimates the total potential of U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba to be $1.2 billion annually, were the embargo completely lifted.
In addition to gains for America’s agribusinesses, ending the travel ban would also yield significant gains to the U.S. travel economy. According to a University of Colorado study, commissioned by Cuba Policy Foundation, lifting travel restrictions could create as much as $522.6 million in revenues for the American travel sector in the first year. In the fifth year after ending the travel ban, America could see over $1.69 billion in revenue and the creation of over 12,000 U.S. jobs. The United States’ beleaguered airlines and cruise operators would be the largest benefactors of Cuba-related growth in the American travel sector.
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Bank Street School Families Visit Cubar
by John McAuliff
During spring break, 2002, FRD undertook a novel path for people to people exchange with Cuba. We organized a trip for five families (including my own) from Bank Street School for Children that offered close interaction with families from the Angela Landa School in Old Havana.
Bank Street School is located on the upper west side of Manhattan. It encompasses both an independent elementary school and a nationally influential Graduate School of Education, known widely in the field for its pedagogical innovation and commitment to community involvement. All its students study Spanish from pre-kindergarten.
With the assistance of Cuba Linda, a private travel agency, we were paired with a school with approximately the same age range of students. Our children visited the Angela Landa School, shared games and an art project, were given a tour of Old Havana by their peers and spent time together at the national aquarium and in Lenin Park on many kinds of rides. The parents from both schools had an opportunity to meet each other at least twice. Relationships were established between parents, with teachers and with the Cuba Linda staff.
The Bank Street contingent presented the Angela Landa School with much needed supplies and athletic equipment. The Angela Landa students gave hand made welcoming presents to our kids.
The parents’ schedule was shaped by their children’s needs, but included opportunities to learn about Cuba’s history, art and contemporary life. All ages enjoyed cultural programs of music and dance presented by Dulce Maria and an Afro-cuban folklore group as well as a trip to a baseball game and the nighttime cannon firing ceremony at the Morro fortress. One father who is a movie producer/director visited the International Film School.
After returning to New York, the kids shared their impressions at an assembly. The adults made a presentation about the trip at a program sponsored by the Multi-Cultural Committee of the Parents Association and excerpts from the journal of one parent appeared in the Association Newsletter.
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The Impact of Tourism on Cuba's Development
by Julie Behrens
For one month this past summer, our team of three Urban Planners, Kaja Kuehl, Jennifer Sun and Julie Behrens traveled to Cuba with the overall objective of learning about the development of the tourism industry on the island; both in terms of it’s physical, environmental and socio-economic impact on various spaces throughout the island and the potential for tourism in Cuba’s development.
Essentially, we wanted to learn about the system; how is it unique, what are the positive and negative consequences, and whether it can it be a sustainable means of economic development in Cuba. Cuba’s special position in the world, as an established and long standing socialist economy, coupled with its relative isolation due to the economic embargo placed by the United States, provides a rich palette for analysis of the current situation, as well as serious consideration of the impact of potential changes for Cuba in the world economy.
Having been given the opportunity to spend one month in Cuba on a self-designed research itinerary, we had ample opportunity to meet with and discuss these issues with Cubans all across the spectrum. From the highest level professionals working on these issues with the Cuban government, to proprietors of casa particulares, to the average Cuban citizen on the street-we gained valuable insight into the extremely complex issue of the tourist industry in Cuba.
Our journey began with a week long conference organized by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), which brought together professionals from North America, Cuba and other Caribbean nations in the fields of Architecture and Urban Planning. Held in the most important historic buildings of Havana Vieja, the conference was a venue for formal presentation on issues of architecture, urban planning and historic preservation, and the ways in which these three fields are deeply entwined in the development of the Cuban tourist industry.
At the same time, the conference served a very practical need for organizing our research, as all of the top Cuban professionals in the field were gathered in Havana for the event. We spent a total of two weeks in Havana, one week in Santiago de Cuba, and split the fourth week between Trinidad and Santa Clara. The selection of these sites, and particular venues within or on the outskirts of these places allowed us to investigate the various types of tourist activity on the island.
Cuba, which is one of the few remaining socialist economies in the world, was forced by the collapse of the Soviet bloc to make serious changes in its economic structure in order to do business with the capitalist world. Probably the most significant decision made at the start of the Special Period was the introduction of the dollar as legal tender in Cuba. This decision opened the door for real economic differences within the population, as those with access to dollars are significantly better off than those without While the largest source of dollars to Cubans is remittances from relatives abroad, the tourist sector has quickly become a viable alternative for attaining dollars. This is hugely significant, particularly for those Cubans who do not have family and friends living outside of the country.
Cuba had little choice but to introduce the dollar, just as it has had to make reforms in land valuation and ownership rights in order to secure investors from abroad. While Cuba’s socialist economy does not place dollar value on land or real estate for the individual citizen, a separate yet parallel quasi-capitalist system has been devised in order to secure foreign investment in the tourist industry.
Trade in tourism is vastly different than trade in goods-it requires an opening of borders to allow for the arrival of foreign visitors. While the economic embargo and strict travel restrictions still remain between Cuba and the United States, many other investors from Europe, Asia and Latin America have begun to tap into the Cuban market. Cuba has already begun to feel some of the physical and socio-economic effects of a foreign presence on the island. So many scientists, doctors, engineers and other well educated professionals chose to work in the tourist industry in order to access dollars that the government introduced regulations to discourage this practice.
Opportunities for independent travel throughout Cuba afford a very different and much richer experience of a truly magical place. Casa particulares and paladares are businesses operated out of private homes. Though highly regulated and heavily taxed, these places do allow for real and personal interaction between average Cuban families and foreign travelers. While this system is prohibitively expensive for many Cuban families, it does represent the growth of private entrepreneurial activity at the ground level.
While it is still too soon to make any definitive determination about the sustainability of Cuba’s tourism industry, the country does provide a fascinating model of the introduction of capitalist activity into a socialist economy. The fact that it happens in the tourist trade introduces another layer of social and economic complexity as Cuba welcomes the world into its beaches, cities, and homes.
To this point, Cuba has managed to control the extreme effects of tourism that are found in other Caribbean nations. This initial research however, has lead us to conclude that changes in the relationship between the United States and Cuba, the possibility of a changing political and economic situation within Cuba, and a massive influx from a very large US market could potentially have negative as well as positive effects on the island. The research conducted to this point provides a baseline for evaluating the sustainability of tourism in Cuba, and to explore the ways in which urban planning, architecture, economics and public policy can direct the tourist industry which inevitably will become Cuba’s economic future.
Kaja Kuehl, Jennifer Sun and Julie Behrens graduated with Masters degrees from the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in May of 2002. They received a grant from the William Kinne Travel Fellowship for undertaking research in Cuba. They can be contacted at jbehrens@cityproject.org, superk@nyc.com and jennifer_sun@aafe.org.
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