Cuba emerges as paradise for gay tourism
As tourism flourishes in Cuba the island is emerging as a destination for gay and lesbian travellers.
Pioneering this tourism in Cuba are the owners of Mi Cayito Cuba, a Web-based intermediary between “gay-friendly Cuban private initiative and clients around the world”.
“The island has great potential as a space for coexistence,” company director Alain Castillo told EFE.
“We are open to everyone, we believe in a free and tolerant environment where respect is valued.”
Located east of Havana, Mi Cayito is probably the only gay beach in the Cuba and for that reason Castillo thought it was an appropriate name for his company, founded a year ago.
“It is vacation time,” the promotion posted on social media say. “It is Cuba time. The new gay paradise.”
Most popular destinations so far for Mi Cayito Cuba’s clients are Havana, the verdant heaven of Vinales in the western province of Pinar del Rio, and Varadero beach, Castillo said.
Mi Cayito Cuba’s website is available only in Spanish, but Castillo said it has been visited by clients in Germany, the United States, Russia, Spain and Latin America who have the choice of tours like “Havana Gay” or a service of personalised guides.
More than two million tourists have come to Cuba so far this year.
“Changes in Cuba have become an incentive and have increased demand,” Castillo said, adding that his company expects a flood of US visitors as a result of the thawing of relations between Washington and Havana and the restoration of diplomatic relations after more than 50 years.
Cuba has not always been so welcoming to gays and lesbians. In the decades following the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro, the Cuban government derided, persecuted and jailed them.
In a 2010 interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Castro acknowledged that he bore ultimate responsibility for the persecution and expressed regret about the policy.
Homosexuality was decriminalised in Cuba in the 1990s and the island’s free public health service began offering sex-reassignment operations in 2008.
Image credit: Passport Magazine
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