Cuba in travel journalism in Spain: Discourses about an exceptional destination (2010–19)

Abstract

This article examines how Cuba was represented as a travel destination in four mainstream media in Spain between 2010 and 2019. The study combined a thematic analysis with a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to focus on their supplements and travel sections. The results revealed that Cuban representations were far from the common discourse attached to ‘sun and beach’ tourism for Caribbean travel destinations. Instead of this, aspects related to society, citizenship and daily life of Cuban people were the most common. Cultural and natural heritage were also salient topics. The CDA revealed about a discourse with some persistence of stereotypes and dominant metaphorical areas that framed Cuba as a ‘paradisiacal’ destination and emphasize the ‘hot’ nature of the island. The study illustrates that the actors in these narratives – tourists and Cuban people – had a variety of roles and agencies. The research contributes to the existing research on Cuban representations and media discourse with evidence about the weight of social issues, culture, heritage, but also remaining postcolonial views to the island, grounded on discourses of otherness and exoticism.