Valerio Simoni

Tourism and transformation: negotiating metaphors, experiencing change

The article introduces this special issue on tourism and transformation. After offering a brief review of the place and significance of ‘transformation’ in social sciences studies of tourism – from ‘impact studies’ to ethnographies of tourists and, more recently, ‘tourist media studies’ – we propose to take one step further and focus our attention on the performativity and reflexivity of ‘transformation’. Our main argument is that much may be gained analytically by considering how notions and experiences of transformation are addressed, negotiated and purposefully deployed in tourism contexts. We conclude with an outline of each of the contributions to this special issue, stressing that the collection re-opens the issue of transformation in tourism and provides new insights into how experiences-turned-metaphors and metaphors-turned-experiences influence both the travel experience and the development of theory.

'Riding' diversity: Cubans'/Jineteros' uses of 'nationality-talks' in the realm of their informal encounters with tourists.

A few days after my arrival in Havana, on my first trip to Cuba, I met a Cubanman who subtly approached me as I was having a tea in one of the main squaresof the old town. During our conversation, we started a discussion about tourism,and I was quickly impressed by his knowledge of tourists. Indeed, he seemed touse a wide range of clues, which helped him guess the nationality of the visitorswho were approaching our table. He explained to me that not only the language,but also the tourists’ appearance would shape his judgements. According to him,Italians, for instance, had a particular way of walking, that could easily bedecoded, and the same was true for the Spanish, who lifted their feet higher thannecessary, looking as if they were crushing cockroaches. At the beginning, I wasquite sceptical about the pertinence of these generalizations. Above all, theymade me laugh and enjoy my conversation with this man. Nevertheless, as wecould tell from the language tourists spoke when they got closer to us, he seemedto get it right in most of the cases. Indeed, his clues seemed to work quite well,and made me understand that I was just a beginner, while he was the expert inthese kinds of observations.An occasional street guide, the man’s income would depend partly on thesefine observations and decoding of tourists, as any anticipation of their nationalitycould orient his decision to approach them, as well as his ways of doing it. Hepreferred to deal with some nationalities, seeing also that (apart from Spanish)he could mainly speak some Italian, French and English, and he told me what heliked or disliked in tourists coming from one or other country – outlining some ofthe ways in which he would consequently approach them. According to him,Mexicans, for instance, were very distrustful and suspicious, hard to deal with,

Economization, moralization, and the changing moral economies of ‘capitalism’ and ‘communism’ among Cuban migrants in Spain:

This article aims to establish a dialogue between approaches in economic anthropology and the anthropology of ethics and morality, assessing the complementarity and the possible points of juncture between these two theoretical lines of enquiry, their analytical potential, as well as their limits. It highlights the importance, for research on moral economies, of uncovering what counts as ‘economic’ and as ‘moral’ in a given empirical context, and proposes the analytical lenses of economization and moralization as a productive way to address such question. The theoretical contribution is grounded in ethnographic research in Spain that examines how Cuban migrants seeking to improve their lives and livelihoods navigate different political-economic systems and changing material conditions. While discussing their trajectories, future projects, and the expectation they associate with ‘capitalism’, ‘communism’ and their respective changes and crises, people are led to articulate different moral economies that delineate conflicting regimes of value and evaluations of what makes for a good life, and what ought to be the place of the economic in it. The analysis of the empirical material enables us to consider various instantiations of the moral economy, to explore the different realities the term can cover, and to clarify the scope and applicability of this notion.

Business, Hospitality, and Change in Cuba’s Private Tourism Sector: A View from Casas Particulares in Viñales

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in the town of Viñales, this article addresses some key features, stakes and debates that characterize privately run tourist accommodations known as casas particulares, including important (dis)continuities in their evolution in the last decade. Praised by tourists as a way to experience the “real” Cuba and establish closer contact with Cubans, casas particulares exemplify the burgeoning private tourism sector on the island. In Viñales, their number has increased dramatically in recent years, engendering changes that have become a heated issue of debate among the town’s inhabitants. Examining the economic and social dimensions that characterize this form of tourist accommodation, its current developments, and their perceived impact on everyday life in Viñales, the article considers the tensions between ideals of hospitality and more business-oriented endeavours, uncovering the emerging controversies and moral economic critiques articulated by proprietors, tourists, and other inhabitants of this tourist town.

Approaching Difference, Inequality, and Intimacy in Tourism: A View from Cuba

Based on ethnography of touristic encounters in Cuba, the article reflects on competing approaches to difference, inequality, and intimacy in tourism and in anthropology. Comparing the understandings of tourists and Cubans involved in these informal engagements, of the Cuban authorities, and of scholars and commentators, three idealized scenarios and modes of interpretation are teased out. Rather than assessing their degree of accuracy or suggesting the primacy of one over the other, the article reflects on their co-presence and competing rationales, focusing on the conditions of their emergence and assessing their epistemological, moral, and political implications. In so doing, it foregrounds how the expectations, desires, and moral underpinnings that inform our findings and interpretative horizons resonate with those of the people we study, opening up different possibilities for estrangement and familiarization, and highlighting what is at stake in these processes both for anthropology and for those with whom we work.