The Evolution of a Cuban Tourist Destination: (Re)constructing Local Landscapes through Foreign Representations

With the re-emergence of international tourism in Cuba, Cuban tourist destinations continue to be (re)constructed using many of the same ˇ°place-imagesˇ± that have traditionally dominated Cuban tourist literature. These place images have been (re)created overtime melding local characteristics with foreign interpretations to form places that entice and attract the tourist. The result is an ˇ°imaginary geographyˇ± of the Cuban tourist destination: one that is based on representations of a local landscape from non-local perspectives. Departing from the tourist areas of Havana and Varadero, which dominate the literature, this paper assesses the evolution of a tourism landscape of the city of Trinidad de Cuba. Utilizing popular and tourist literature the paper assess how non-local representations of Trinidad have (re)produced Trinidad as a tourist destination overtime leading to its ˇ°imaginaryˇ± as a tourist destination.