Tourism in Havana during the special period: impacts, residents' perceptions, and planning issues

Tourism has become an attribute of central importance within Havana’s urban environments and landscapes. Throughout the “Special Period,” tourism development has played a crucial role in transforming the city’s main functions and its urban environmental, economic, and social conditions. The rapid increase of tourist inflows and tourism-oriented facilities is testing Havana’s dilapidated urban infrastructural network, such as the water and sewerage systems and the transport services. It is argued that city-wide tourist development is prompting diverging environmental and socio-economic conditions within Havana’s neighborhoods and triggering the (re-)emergence of a “dual city.”