International tourism has grown steadily in Cuba since the Sol Palmeras hotel—the product of the communist government’s first joint venture with a foreign company, Spain’s Sol Meliá—opened in 1990 on the north coast’s Varadero Beach. Most of the record 2,250,000 travelers who visited the island last year headed to resorts on the north coast, such as the numerous hotels that now dot Varadero. Anthropologist Ricardo Pérez, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Eastern Connecticut State University, conducts research on environmental sustainability and tourism in Cuba. In particular, he studies state-driven development amid economic and cultural globalization. Since 2005, Pérez has done field research in northern Cuba on the environmental impact of hotel, road, and beach-resort development in the provinces of Matanzas, which includes Varadero, and Villa Clara. He spoke recently with EcoAméricas correspondent Celeste Mackenzie during a conference on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. [Log in to read more]

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