Introduction

This chapter provides background on the origin and necessity of a book on “lessons learned” from a half century of modern-day cruise tourism. Written initially in Spanish to provide a thorough overview of costs and benefits of cruise tourism, intentions were to help inform Cuba’s policy surrounding cruise tourism as the once-bypassed country entered the powerful Caribbean cruise circuit market. Can cruise tourism significantly help the island’s ailing economy, bringing income and jobs to Cuban households? How does it stack up compared with various types of stayover tourism, including most importantly small-scale “people-to-people” nature-based and culture tourism, and large-scale, all-inclusive beach resorts? These were the central questions being quietly discussed by discerning Cubans, and they are a central focus of this book. This chapter outlines the issues, including relatively new topics that have come to the fore – climate change and overtourism – forcing us to take a more profound and multi-dimensional look at the cruise industry. The English version examines cruise tourism in a wider lens to make it applicable to destinations across the Caribbean and beyond.