Tourism a curse or a blessing
Our guide holding her “Supplies Booklet”. The vast majority of Cuban families rely, for their food intake, on the Libreta de Abastecimiento, a supplies booklet distribution system. The system establishes the rations each person is allowed to buy through the system, and the frequency of supplies. The changes in Cuba in recent years have often hinted at a new era of possibilities: a slowly opening economy, warming relations with the United States after decades of isolation, a flood of tourists meant to lift the fortunes of Cubans long marooned on the outskirts of modern prosperity. But the record arrival of nearly 3.5 million visitors to Cuba last year has caused a surging demand for food. Tourists are quite literally eating Cuba’s lunch. Thanks in part to the United States embargo, but also to poor planning by the island’s government, goods that Cubans have long relied on are going to well-heeled tourists and the hundreds of private restaurants that cater to them, leading to soaring prices and empty shelves – Havana, Cuba.
Tourism a curse or a blessing
Our guide holding her “Supplies Booklet”. The vast majority of Cuban families rely, for their food intake, on the Libreta de Abastecimiento, a supplies booklet distribution system. The system establishes the rations each person is allowed to buy through the system, and the frequency of supplies. The changes in Cuba in recent years have often hinted at a new era of possibilities: a slowly opening economy, warming relations with the United States after decades of isolation, a flood of tourists meant to lift the fortunes of Cubans long marooned on the outskirts of modern prosperity. But the record arrival of nearly 3.5 million visitors to Cuba last year has caused a surging demand for food. Tourists are quite literally eating Cuba’s lunch. Thanks in part to the United States embargo, but also to poor planning by the island’s government, goods that Cubans have long relied on are going to well-heeled tourists and the hundreds of private restaurants that cater to them, leading to soaring prices and empty shelves – Havana, Cuba.