Profile of Cuban Women Involved in Sex Tourism—A Financial Perspective

Abstract

With the country’s lack of access to financial resources and wages being low in the formal sector of employment, some women in Cuba have devised sex tourism as the way of survival and fulfilling their family and personal needs. This paper identifies the profile of those Cuban women who are involved in the sex tourism in Cuba and examines how this industry is financially benefiting them. This study follows the method of reviewing other research literatures on sex tourism in Cuba, analyzing and differentiating them with one another. The study first discusses Cuba as a tourist destination, the kind of profile the women carries with themselves by being in the sex tourism industry and the existing links of the sex tourism and the local residents in Cuba with its financial impacts. The ways and the aspects in which sex tourism is financially benefitting the local residents especially the women are revealed. The conclusion discusses the importance of sex tourism to Cuba through the association or the local women with the financial impacts of sex tourism and defining the women’s nature of engagement, and the need for detailed future research on other broader facets surrounding this study.