The cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists, signed in Havana on 28 October 2000 is strengthening culture-tourism relations. These are essential to promoting Cuban artistic, cultural and heritage values.

This is why, the Caribbean Excellences magazine has requested this interview.

So far, there has been a lot of talk about the "differentiation of the Cuban tourist product". Do you believe this agreement contains the essential groundwork for the development of this policy that is the responsibility of both ministries? The answer is yes, because the agreement is based on an accumulated experience that dates back to the early nineties. Its second reaffirmation is in the agreement signed in 1995 by the then-Ministers Armando Hart and Osmany Cienfuegos, an agreement that has been the work platform of both ministries. We have always had the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) and its membership as a major player. Participation by artists and writers is important because it is an uncommitted opinion; their commitment is to culture and the Cuban nation alone. But the important thing is that both ministries have a policy that reflects the Cuban government’s guidelines, which are also the guidelines of UNEAC.

Tourism is referred to as a major source of finance for Cuban culture? The relationship is grounded on something that is, what distinguishes Cuba, as a tourist destination, from the other countries in the Caribbean: is precisely the Cuban culture, because there are beaches, sun, vegetation and climate like ours in the rest of the Caribbean. This is an element that helps quantify the Cuban tourist destination, and I think it is culture’s greatest economic contribution to the development of tourism in Cuba. That tourism-culture relationship –visiting the institutions, commercializing works of art, books, discs, other manifestations of art and culture, artistic presentations, music, theater, dancing, cinema—yields a positive economic balance to tourist and cultural institutions as well as to the artists. What strategies are to be followed so as to sensitize executives –both Cuban and foreign executives—with this cultural policy? The main effort must be geared to sensitizing the Cuban and foreign executives on the value of Cuban culture, of cultural projects. I believe that this must be done through the conviction of the need for that relationship. While regulations are important and necessary, it is even more important for every person who has a responsibility, down to the simplest link in the chain, to be aware of the importance of culture in the path toward a tourist power.

One of the aspects of the agreement includes offering special attention to tourist entertainments management. Could you speak about some strategies or guidelines geared to eliminate this tension? The Ministry of Tourism has been working on regulations, on enhancing entertainments management schools, on revising the syllabi and curricula for new tourist entertainments managers, on the training programs for current entertainments managers; and today, upgrading the level of that personnel is a strategic objective of both ministries and UNEAC. Tourist entertainments managers and tourist guides are two essential links in the chain, because they are the ones who have the closest relation with tourists.

And, what about literature books? How to get promotional spaces in the field of tourism, taking into account the uniqueness of the literary phenomenon, language barriers, etc? Ediciones Cubanas has played an important role, as well as Casa de las Américas and other publishers. Precisely is through literature that one gets to know the culture of a people. To increase publications in other languages; this is a real barrier we are having. There have been very interesting contributions from Casa de las Américas; they have been editing and commercializing image books, and that image book breaks the language barrier. Our publishers are working hard in that direction, as well as in increasing publications in other languages.

This is an element that helps quantify the Cuban tourist destination, and I think it is culture’s greatest economic contribution to the development of tourism in Cuba.