“El Caribe que nos une” Relaciones Públicas en Cuba: una mirada desde el Turismo / "The Caribbean that unites us" Public Relations in Cuba: a tourism perspective

Abstract

Public Relations have been classified into 6 stages from its emergence in Cuba (1956) to date (2021); However, it was not until the third phase (1990-1998) that the discipline began to awaken, coinciding with the germination of the specialty in the political, economic and social scene in which the country found itself in those years. The 90s also set the tone in the development of Tourism in Cuba, from then on several tourist institutions were created or expanded such as travel agencies, hotel and extra-hotel entities, including the Ministry of Tourism - hereinafter MINTUTR- ; Likewise, various avenues of relations were established, which made it possible to demonstrate the role that Public Relations played on the island. This binomial became increasingly important, also achieving a bidirectional sense, to the point that the exponential growth of Tourism is attributed - to a certain extent - to Public Relations. A small diagnosis carried out during the investigative process, showed that there are a set of weaknesses in relation to the current attention of Public Relations in the territory, which need to be combated and take a series of measures for their improvement, much more so, if they are takes into account that the current situation in Cuba was exacerbated by the entire epidemiological scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which results in further distancing from the competition. This tool has been of vital importance, since it is present in the customer experience cycle in the 4 key moments: attraction, attention, loyalty and feedback; and where the figure of the public relations officer is empowered from graduates in the communication area, to those who are in some way in direct contact with the client, since although they do not know the theory, it does add great value to their satisfaction, reaching even turning a product / service that did not deliver on its promise into a positive one. The aforementioned diagnosis is carried out mainly from: bibliographic review, interview with specialists from different tourism companies, business owners and the assessment of experts through a test on the purification or relevance of the problems obtained. From this, two great results are reached where a series of essential opportunities are displayed for the improvement of Public Relations from the tourist perspective. The first summarizes the concept of strong binomial that exists between Tourism and Public Relations, in such a way that, if the found weaknesses were solved, it would be possible to enhance the confidence of the tourism sector and therefore of Public Relations. This section is supported by 4 elements that are pointed out in order to achieve the success of this first task. These fundamentals are: structure, the education of the new public relations officer, interrelationships and competition. The second focuses on the change in behavior that has caused the impact of the pandemic, which puts in value not only the role of Public Relations, but also shows that they are facing a new challenge. In summary, the research makes it clear that, if the aforementioned actions are carried out, success will be achieved in the development of Public Relations in Tourism in Cuba.