State, space, and geopolitical struggle

A political economy of Cuban tourism (1925–2026)

Bibliographic Data

ID23308607
AuthorsLluís Mundet-Cerdan (Universitat de Girona, corresponding author), Eduardo Salinas (Universidad de Granada), Maité Echarri (University of Havana), Ricardo Remond Noa (0000-0002-6969-3453, University of Havana)
Year2026
Volume176
Pages104782
Publication date2026-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2026.104782
OpenAlexW7171613975
LanguageEN
References cited17

Cuba presents a profound anomaly within tourism geographies: a state-socialist system deeply embedded within the global tourism economy. While the existing literature has documented the economic dimensions of Cuban tourism, it has largely failed to theorise the territorial and social transformations the industry has produced within the island’s singular geopolitical context. This article addresses that gap. We argue that Cuban tourism development is best understood, through the lens of political economy, as a century-long series of state-managed “spatial fixes”: deliberate, crisis-driven reorganisations of national territory rather than the outcome of geographic destiny or ideological failure alone. Driven by the dual imperatives of navigating geopolitical isolation and resolving internal economic crises, these fixes have produced a uniquely contradictory landscape of isolated enclaves, profound social stratification, and a persistent disconnect between state planning and social reality. Employing a critical documentary analysis of state planning documents, legislation, and national statistics from 1925 to 2026, the study traces the geopolitical production of the Cuban tourism space, from its pre-revolutionary role as a playground for North Americans to its post-Soviet function as the primary engine of the economy. The findings show that the current crisis—in which the state has continued to invest heavily in hotel construction even as foreign chains withdraw, air connectivity collapses, and demand evaporates—is the terminal paradox of this model. The paper makes three contributions: it advances the political economy of tourism through a critical, longitudinal analysis of a state-socialist case; it contributes to tourism geopolitics by demonstrating how international conflict materially shapes a destination’s developmental logic; and it offers a nuanced critique of state-led planning that situates Cuba not as the antithesis of the dependent Caribbean tourism economy but as a singular, socialist variant of it.

Geopolitics · Ideology · Political geography · Politics · State (computer science) · Tourism · Tourism geography · Cuban History and Society · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies