221 | N.º 7/8 | 2007
“Destination Cuba” – Hospitality and Tourism Education,
Training Strategy and Challenges
PAT WOOD * [ p.wood@londonmet.ac.uk ]
Abstract | Analyses the recent developments in Cuban hospitality and tourism education, specifically the introduction of a tourism undergraduate degree in 2002-03 and the influence this may have for the status of the tourism industry and the workforce in Cuba and the region. Important aspects of this development will be examined including potential changes for the workforce, the development and competition of the industry nationally and regionally together with the impact for the best practice disaster management strategy. The discussion is informed by current data and views from Cuban partners, policy makers, practitioners and the workforce, over three years in Cuba and UK. Cuba continues to be one of the most mystical tourist destinations in the world with a phenomenal growth rate during the recent years. The current academic developments suggest an important advance in Cuba with a potential impact for Caribbean tourism. Keywords | Cuba, Hospitality and Tourism Industry, Workforce, Education Strategy, Disaster Management.
Resumo | Este artigo analisa os desenvolvimentos recentes no ensino da hotelaria e turismo em Cuba, mais
especificamente a influência que a introdução de um novo curso de turismo, em 2002-03, poderá ter na indústria turística e na mão-de-obra existentes em Cuba e na região. São analisados aspectos importantes destes desenvolvimentos, incluindo mudanças potenciais na mão-de-obra, o desenvolvimento e competitividade da indústria nacional e regional, conjuntamente com o impacto ao nível das melhores práticas de estratégia de gestão de catástrofes. Esta análise baseia-se em dados actuais e visões de vários intervenientes no processo ao longo dos últimos três anos em Cuba e Reino Unido. Cuba continua a ser um dos destinos turísticos mais místicos do mundo com uma extraordinária taxa de crescimento ao longo dos últimos anos. Investigações académicas actuais sugerem um desenvolvimento importante em Cuba com um impacto potencial no turismo das Caraíbas. Palavras-chave | Cuba, Indústria Turística e Hoteleira, Mão-de-Obra, Estratégia de Ensino, Gestão de Catástrofes. * Principal Lecturer, External Relations and Professional Links at London Metropolitan University, International Institute for the Study of Cuba. (221-228)
222 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007 1. Introduction Cuba integrates a breadth and depth of heritage, educational and cultural experiences with its unique selling point (USP) – the element of mystique. It is a multi functional destination with a strong identity summed up in the words of Ferradaz Garcia, Minister of Tourism of Cuba in 2002:
Cuba is an archipelago of great natural attractions – including more than 300 natural beaches and a very pleasant climate – together with the people’s warm hospitality, rich historic and cultural heritage. Add to that an extraordinary and rare eco environment, a naturally hospitable well-educated people, and value for money, a safe destination, social stability and a unique experience – Cuba has it all. Tourism is an activity for the whole country.
The hotel stock and Cuba as a tourism destination are continually developing. Richard Branson, in June 2005, launched the direct Virgin London to Habana service, boosting the airlift immeasurably. The tourism education and training strategy is built on the well-established and highly acclaimed generic Cuban formula. Disaster management, a central issue in the region, is centrally controlled and underpinned by leading scientific principles, training and a strong community culture. Ultimately the USP, in this case mystique, can never be underestimated in the tourism environment of the 21st century. Cuba offers a unique and important tourism product at a competitive price in a safe environment.
2. The industry environment
During recent years Cuba has achieved the highest growth rates in tourism within the Caribbean. Cuba is ranked 8th in the Caribbean and American tourism league (MINTUR, 2004). Between 1990 and 2000 the country received 10 million visitors with an annual growth rate increasing to 18%. The tourism flows in the Caribbean in the same period increased at an average annual rate of 4,3%. The new wave of success in tourism in Cuba is the result of a competent and well-executed 10 year “Intense Tourism Development” (MINTUR, 2004). All tourism dependant Caribbean nations watch the rapid progress made by Cuba year after year, and are concerned at loosing their market share. It is commonly understood that, eventual lifting of the US embargo on Cuba will worsen the situation for some top tourist destinations in the Caribbean. Some analysts comfort themselves by falsely stating that a post US embargo tourism-boom in Cuba will last only a couple of years, and the novelty will fade away quickly. Based on the current trend, it is not difficult to predict that by 2010 Cuba will be elevated to the number one position in Caribbean tourism, with or without a change in the policy of the USA towards Cuba. Currently, Cuba is the least US market dependant tourist destination in the Caribbean. Based on the published statistics (CTO, 2001), the approximate market share of the key feeder markets is: – Europe 54%; – Canada 17%; – Caribbean 10%; – South America 7%; – USA 4%; – Other 8%.
These are further correlated in Figure 1 by MINTUR (2004) indicating 12% annual growth between 1995 and 2003. In 2004 tourism arrivals exceeded the 2 million mark with predicted growth at 17%.
The economy has been growing steadily since 1995 at an average annual growth rate of 4,8%. Tourism is the economic activity, which brings in 44% of the total income creating 200 000 tourism related jobs (Cuba Si, 2002).
223 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007
Cuban tourism has evolved with strong links to other industries including tobacco, sugar and coffee. A vibrant and professional conference industry annually attracts a host of international business, academic and leisure visitors.
Opportunities to supply the tourism sector have created favourable conditions for a considerable number of joint ventures, which have also encouraged joint knowledge spin offs with universities and industry. In 2004 there were 240 generic private joint ventures of which 70 plus were related to the tourism industry (Figueras, 2005).
Of the 240 hotels in Cuba, 53 (22%) are under foreign management contracts. Notable external investors / operators include Sol Melia (Spain), SuperClubs (Jamaica), Sandals (Jamaica), Accor (France), IWI (Germany), Senador (Canada). Cubanacan (Cuban state owned) represents a number of Cuban brands and San Cristobel with Habguanex is part of the Old Habana restoration initiative. There is no external property ownership. The foreign hotel groups generally operate with 50/50 management contracts and approximately a 60/40 financial loading. The room stock at 2004 (Table 1) has grown substantially to respond to the demand of product type and quality.
Airlift, which is central to enabling any tourism strategy to fulfil its ambitions, has been further augmented by the addition of direct Virgin Atlantic flights between London and Habana with Richard Branson staging a PR bonanza for the inaugural flight on 27th June 2005. Currently the island is serviced by daily flights from Europe with Iberia, Air France, Air Jamaica and twice weekly by the Cuban state owned Cubana. Sixty international and national airlines operate with Cuba. With eleven international airports the island is effectively serviced which is an important feature in spreading tourism dividends throughout the islands population, enabling a diverse offer of visitor interest. The added advantage of manoeuvrability is a vital ingredient in the safety of visitors and population in the case of hurricane and disaster management, for which Cuba is considered a regional leader of best practice. 3. Education environment That the vocational education and training (VET) has grown up around and is linked to the business trends of the tourism industry is an essential core for the success of the industry.
The commitment in developing the human resources needed for Cuba’s tourism sector has laid a strong foundation for the future success of the sector. As an example, FORMATUR, the national training and education agency for the tourism and hospitality sector in Cuba and the training arm of the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) has 19 hospitality Figure 1 | Arrivals from all countries (thousands). Average annual growth: 12%. Table 1 | Room stock at 2004 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Source: MINTUR, 2004 0 400 1 905 1 686 1 774 1 774 1 603 1 416 1 170 1 014 752 800 1 200 1 600 2 000 2 400 66 224 68,8% 25,7% 68% 40% rooms rooms at beaches rooms in cities rooms in 4- and 5-star hotels 4 and 5 star hotels Source: MINTUR, 2004.
22 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007 schools, with over 1 000 professors who train and issue some 20 000 certificates annually. (MINTUR, 2004). Cuba has, by far, the most educated population within the Caribbean today. Now Cuba is using that significant strength to choose and train employees for tourism. Managers from other sectors with excellent academic qualifications and professional experiences are attracted to the tourism sector, particularly the hotel industry, as this is perceived as a good way to earn much sought after income and as a way forward from redundant industries such as sugar. Accordingly FORMATUR introduced a one- -year management conversion programme.
The following extract from the Cuban information service underlines the sophisticated contribution education makes to the Cuban economy and its human resource:
Education in Cuba is free at all levels, including the university. Illiteracy was wiped out in Cuba in 1961, when a national literacy campaign was waged. All of the provinces have centres of specialized training, polytechnic institutes, universities and other centres of higher education. Education has been revolutionized with the introduction of audio-visual means (Cuba Si, 2002). Public, medical and educational services are the prominent systems introduced by Castro’s government over four decades ago. Table 2 reflect the importance placed on education for an 11 346 670 population in the Caribbean’s largest island of 110 860 km2. . The workforce
By the end of 2001, the Cuban hotel industry alone provided direct employment for 90 007 persons (63% being male and 37% female). 20% of the workforce held a degree level education (medicine, science, teaching, etc.) and over 75% of the hospitality and tourism workforce were qualified to technician level and above (Cuban National Statistics, 2002).
With the rapid growth rate of tourism arrivals over the past decade the economy has had to transform itself rapidly to take advantage from this activity. Few countries have experienced such a deep structural change as the one that the Cuban economy has undergone during this period. Currently in Cuba the hospitality and tourism workforce require new training initiatives to effectively handle the volume and demands of an international traveller. The productivity, quality and control benchmarks that belong to the global systematic hotel environment have not to date been fully addressed.
The Cuban hotel industry management consists of a blend of foreigners and Cubans. Non-Cuban companies operate with expatriate heads of department, known locally as “assesors”. Historically the hotel work environment has been an attractive alternative for the highly educated Cuban population. This is mainly due to the equality of pay structures maintained throughout the country. As an example, a general doctor earns approximately 350 Cuban pesos (US$ 20) per month. A hotel worker / restaurant waiter on the other hand earns the same with the addition of an average US$ Table 2 | Distribution of education 8 868 1 837 427 49 12,8 8% 96% 98,2% 35 000 Elementary schools Junior and senior high schools Special schools Universities (with 686 027 university graduates between 1959 and 2001) Average of students per teacher Of GDP is spent on education Literacy rate among the population 10 years old and over Of all children between 6 and 14 years old attend school Students from 23 other countries have studied at no cost in Cuba’s Universities Source: MES, 2004. | WOOD
22 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007 17 per day in tips. Cuban general managers earn in the region of 700 pesos (US$ 40) per month. The expatriate general managers working in Cuba earn in the region of US$ 5 000 – 7 000 (Wood, 2002a).
Unlike most developed countries, there is no difficulty in recruiting well-educated employees to hotels in Cuba. The employees are certainly not short of charm, which is inherent within the Cuban culture. However, there can be a lack of empowerment and sometimes motivation among the hotel workforce, in particular the food, beverage and housekeeping domains.
. Vocational education and training (VET) provision
In addition to the 19 Formatur state agency schools providing VET to the industry at technician level, Cubanacan, the state tourism agency, has its own technical school.
With focus on the environment being fundamental to the region, the environmental agency has developed a one-year eco tourism specialist VET programme which, in 2004, 330 tourist guides have undertaken. The course has two sections. The first of which comprises two parts, general VET and nature topics including bio diversity, sustainability, tourism loading, species and habitat. The second section concentrates on the specific work environment. In addition the programme develops language knowledge. The current programme has a cohort of 158 trainees (Alonso, 2002). Currently a new programme to educate the tourist in environmental awareness is under development.
6. Disaster management and education
Central to the best practice of Cuba’s well acknowledged strategic handling of natural disasters is the education and training that is
systematically pursued to underpin the disaster management, namely hurricanes. These are endemic in the region and according to the latest NOAA 2005 predictions “the Atlantic hurricane season will be rough”. The importance of the Cuban strategy promotes confidence for visitors and tourism business levels are unaffected. Grenada, in May 2005, signed a partnership agreement with Cuba to enable the best practice system to be established in Grenada. This will focus on mitigation measures such as early warning systems, education and training of the population, and the development of a legal framework to guide the formation of the system.
In 2005 a think tank was established to centralise and develop best regional academic and business practice related to tourism, environment and disaster management.
The generic culture and centralised education of the Cuban population is a key to the efficient hurricane engagement together with the Civil Defense and advanced scientific early warning systems, which enable a minimal loss of life. To ensure both community and tourism safety a strategic approach is professionally pursued through specific training activities. All staff are systematically trained and assessed in hurricane management. “Meteoro”, a hotel hurricane training exercise enacted with private and public tourism partners, is a valuable tool for tourism safety. Relocation out of danger zones, utilising the transport and airline network of the 11 airports, contributes to professional evacuation procedures and a “safe” tourism industry even though this latter strategy can be extremely costly. With 2005 already living up to the hurricane predictions the continuous and cyclical strategic planning, implementation and evaluation policy with the commitment of the key stakeholders – public, private and community – is increasingly central to the tourism plan. Tourism, security and the economy travel hand in hand (Wood, 2005b).
226 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007
7. The new tourism education strategy
The tourism higher education strategy, released by MES in July 2002, is designed to address the issues of a rapid tourism industry growth by establishing, in the first stage, four University centres of hospitality and tourism education, throughout Cuba, to provide undergraduate degree education. The aim is to address the management competencies required to move the labour force forward, within the indigenous population, to enable it to have a parallel standing to that of other national industries and compete effectively in a global industry market. To further inform this task, in 2002, a delegation comprising the ministers of the higher education (MES) and the tourism (MINTUR) ministries, undertook a study of hospitality and tourism VET provision within a selection of European centres of excellence. The potential outcomes of the strategy are to: – Establish a dedicated human resource structure and development strategy for the industry; – Support the central manpower plan, professional deployment and retraining of the workforce from redundant industries eg. sugar;
– Place the hospitality industry qualifications, on a par with other professional qualifications in Cuba;
– Promote partnership for joint research between international universities, thereby establishing shared, measured and considered written outcomes that take mutually informed viewpoints into account; – Decrease the reliance on conversion courses for students from alternative disciplines; – Ensure the status of the industry as a career and profession of choice; – Harness the established eco tourism education to the undergraduate provision;
– Build tourist education programmes- working with tourist operators to communicate and manage the education of tourists;
– Develop a pride and motivation within the industry through a specialist core graduate group;
– Encourage a robust international exchange of university students and staff to enable a first hand assessment of industry developments between nations.
The Vice Minister of Tourism (Commerce) stated at an international forum in London that “Cuba has a recognition of the development needs, education and human resource development, planning and management effort required” to capitalise on the tourism potential (Rodriguez, 2002). The new undergraduate degrees will be built on that system whilst using the opportunity to integrate appealing features from other global models.
8. Implications of the new policy
The Cuban Ministry of Education have studied the current and projected rates of growth in the tourism industry whilst apprising themselves of the hospitality and tourism education systems of other countries. The ongoing international and regional academic partnerships indicate the rigorous approach of the Cubans to engage in regional and global initiatives. The new master plan for hospitality and tourism undergraduate provision will be gradually integrated into the existing system in partnership with interested parties and in discussion with leading external educators. Nevertheless, the change in hospitality and tourism educational policy raises a number of issues:
– Will previous graduates of other disciplines, eg. mature doctors and teachers continue to retrain | WOOD
227 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007
on conversion courses to compete with school leavers undertaking specialist undergraduate programmes?
– Will less of the population enter the professions they were previously trained and educated for in favour of tourism, hospitality and potentially business degrees?
– Will the introduction of the hospitality and tourism undergraduate programme sit comfortably in the workplace with the current well-educated, but non-specialist, workforce?
– How will tourism degrees be regarded within the academic environment?
– What role wills the Cuban and non-Cuban hotel companies’ play in the phasing in of the strategy?
– Will entrepreneurship become natural pheno-mena to be embraced?
– After the development of the undergraduate programme, how will masters and doctoral programmes engage?
On completion of the pilot programmes: – Operationally, what will the model look like?
Will it incorporate languages, a partial delivery in English, training restaurant, industry placements, work experience opportunities, which are all currently available in the FORMATUR system? – How closely will the provision follow the current
Cuban University undergraduate model? – To what extent will regional and global strategic
alliances be extended within a new academic discipline?
Discussion at leading industry conferences indicates that a number of successful international industry VET models exist in the hotel business.
Currently leading international brands are represen-ted in Cuba. Accor for example has its own hotel school in France. Cross fertilisation could be beneficial to all parties.
Already, in Cuba, we are seeing research related to hospitality and tourism being eagerly established by other disciplines, computing, economics, polymers, bio technology, chemistry, environment, medicine and nutrition. The new degrees have opened up a vast world of academic opportunity which both the Cubans and their global counterparts have been keen to embrace. Universidad 2004, a bi annual higher education conference in Habana organised by MES, of several themes and some 2 500 delegates, integrated its first tourism education conference with a competent presentation of papers with international and Cuban speakers.
. Conclusion
Will tourism be used as a lever for change as the specialist graduates move into the industry for a profession rather than a job with inherent benefits? Certainly this educational development is an opportunity for Cuba to devise a model of global “best practice” in hospitality and tourism education. The complexity of the tourism industry determines the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of hospitality and tourism programmes.
Cuba is enthusiastically and strategically embracing the opportunities those challenges usually bring. A type of social capital exists within the population, which together with the central coordination of local, municipal and national agencies contributes to the best practice in disaster management, commercial spin offs and a strong survival instinct.
Within an isolated political system over 46 years against all odds, misunderstandings and embargoes, Cuba has survived and has been well recognised in the development of education and health. During the last 10 years it has recorded phenomenal tourism
228 RT&D | N.º 7/8 | 2007
growth rates and further growth is consistently predicted. Cuba is continually driving its tourism economy towards internal production and quality outputs. It has well established its position as a global tourism destination and continues to be a key topic in travel journalism. Robust, professional and safe tourism is essential for a destination to qualify as world player. The new hospitality and tourism education strategy should be a valuable example in a leading 21st century global tourism destination. References
Alonso, G., 2002, Environmental Agency, Cuba, Eco Tourism Resources in Cuba, Tourism in Cuba: An Update, Cuban Ministry of Tourism Seminar, London.
Anuario Estadístico de Cuba, 2002, Ministry of the Interior, Cuba. CTO, 2001, Caribbean Tourism Statistical Report 1999-2000,
Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Barbados. Cuba Si, 2002, Tourism Board Information, Cuba.
Dirección Nacional de Inmigración y Extranjería, 2002, Habana, Cuba.
Figueras, M., 2005, Cuba 2020 Vision, symposium, London Metropolitan University, London.
Garcia, A., 2004, Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR), Republic of Cuba, Tourism Seminar, London.
Garcia, F., 2002, Interview 2nd Iberian American conference of ministers of tourism, Hosteltur.
Ministry of Educacion Superior (MES), 2004, Republic of Cuba. National Hurricane Centre, [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/]. Rodriguez de la Vega, E., 2002, Tourism in Cuba: An Update,
Cuban Ministry of Tourism Seminar, London.
Wood, P., 2002a, Relationship of Culture with Tourist Accommodation in the Caribbean, Pilot Study, International Institute for Culture, Tourism and Development, London Metropolitan University, London, UK.
Wood, P., 2005b, ‘Hit and Miss’ Disaster Management in Cuban Tourism, WTO, Ulysses Conference paper, Madrid, Spain. WTTC, 2001, Destination Report on Cuba, World Travel and
Tourism Council, London.
[ Submitted 15 June 2005; accepted 26 July 2006 ] | WOOD
