Elizabeth Jordan, now in her second year of the Master of Tourism Administration program, was one of 17 students to participate in an international tourism consulting practicum—or hands-on course—in Cuba this past summer.
Developed and co-led by GW’s Director of International Institute of Tourism Studies Seleni Matus and Senior Research Scholar Salvador Anton Clave, the course included a month of classroom preparation followed by two weeks in Havana, where students conducted onsite research for two clients: the University of Havana and the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation for Nature & Humanity. with the goal of providing recommendations for enhancing tourism businesses, particularly home stays and home restaurants, for the American tourism market.
This program was the School of Business’ first-ever experiential learning program to Cuba and offered students the unique opportunity to experience Cuba’s evolution toward a new economic model driven by tourism entrepreneurship and incremental social change.
In September, University of Havana economics professor Rafael Betancourt, who was in Washington DC for World Tourism Day, visited GW, where along with Elizabeth and two other students, he gave a presentation on tourism in Cuba generally as well as the practicum more specifically. For those unable to attend the brown bag presentation, we asked Elizabeth to share a snap shot of her experience.
What was the purpose of your visit to Cuba last summer?
While most US visitors to Cuba choose to visit Old Havana, a UNESCO- World Heritage site, the scope of our consulting assignment included exploring beyond this famous municipality to analyze Vedado and Central Havana, two neighboring municipalities in Havana City typically considered outside of this tourist zone. We were charged with assessing the readiness of these areas to meet the needs of the US tourism market, and specifically the niche of SAVE— scientific, academic, volunteer and educational tourism. Cuba’s economy is evolving, the tourism industry is booming and Cubans are increasingly able to operate in the tourism marketplace as cuentapropistas (self-employed). Our project aimed to assess the current environment for tourism businesses and opportunities for improvement,, which could appeal to the US market.
How did you conduct your onsite research?
We divided our group into three teams. Each one had a different focus: casas particulares—the private homes where individual owners host visitors in Airbnb-style accommodations and the paladares—the private restaurants was one group. The second group assessed the city’s cultural and creative tourism offerings and opportunities, and the third focused on the SAVE market. Each team conducted interviews of proprietors in the tourism industry, and then we compared notes to draw some overarching conclusions.
What about the research results did you find particularly noteworthy?
Our biggest takeaway was around the challenges facing the Cuban people working in tourism and their amazing ability to respond to those challenges. These individual tourism enterprise owners—who we found to be incredibly enterprising and resourceful—are operating at a disadvantage. They have limited, if any, access to the Internet or even basic supplies. Unlike the government properties, these individual owners are not permitted to make wholesale purchases and often are unable to source badly needed supplies. From a marketing point of view, we found a lack of consistent standards for casa particulares and paladares, which leads to an inconsistent experience for visitors.
Despite the challenges, you found that tourism outside of the government-run businesses is growing substantially. Why is that?
Due to the dual currency system, it is very lucrative to work in the tourism industry and to be paid in CUC’s, which are valued 24 times the national currency. That is why Cubans are eager to operate in the tourism economy, whether they’re operating casas particulares, paladares and even driving the informal taxis.
What did you personally find the most compelling about the experience?
I found the hospitality and kindness of the people and their deep desire to form relationships with Americans overwhelming and way beyond what I —or any of us in the group—had anticipated. Not only was that warm welcome very impactful and moving, but it made for a more authentic touristic experience than I’ve ever had. We had the opportunity to really speak to people about their lives and what mattered most to them.
