Portal:Cuba/Selected article/1

Tourism in Cuba attracts over 2 million visitors a year, and is one of the main sources of revenue for the island. With its favorable climate, beaches, colonial architecture and distinct cultural history, Cuba has long been an attractive destination for travelers from around the globe, and benefited from its close proximity to the United States to gain a reputation as a hedonistic escape for U.S. tourists. As relations between Cuba and the United States deteriorated rapidly after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the island became cut off from its traditional market by an embargo and travel ban imposed on U.S. citizens visiting Cuba, and the industry declined to record low levels within two years.

Following the collapse of Cuba's chief trading partner the Soviet Union, and the resulting economic crisis known as the Special Period, Cuba embarked on a major program to bolster its tourist industry in order to bring in much needed finance to the island. Schemes to encourage visitors resulted in the tourism surpassing Cuba's traditional export industry, sugar, as the leading source of revenue by the late 1990s. Visitors come primarily from Canada and Europe and tourist areas are highly concentrated around Varadero Beach, Cayo Coco, the beach areas north of Holguin, and Havana. The impact on Cuba's socialist society and economy has been significant, leading to complaints that the state has fostered a form of divisive wealth apartheid on the island.