Cuba's "revolutionary" tourists pick fruit, haul rock

Reuters ^ | Thu Jul 6, 2006 10:08am ET | Esteban Israel

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CAIMITO, Cuba (Reuters) - They do not come to Cuba for the beaches and tropical mystique that draw more than 2 million other visitors each year.

Instead they come to spend their vacations working in the countryside under a blazing sun, eating rice and beans and sharing a room without air-conditioning or toilet with seven others.

They are so-called revolutionary tourists who arrive each year from about 50 countries for a "total immersion" in one of the world's few remaining socialist countries.

"I call it a revolutionary vacation. I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban revolution," Carlo Sarpero, a 26-year-old shop keeper from Genova, Italy, explained, as he repaired a school.

Cuba will receive more than 1,200 foreign "brigadistas" this summer for its "social-political" tourism program.

The Caribbean island's government does not measure the program's impact in monetary value, like that of sun and beach tourism which brings in more than $2.5 billion a year, but in political terms.

"A big majority of those who participate become activists in Cuban solidarity groups in their countries," said Gabriel Benitez of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the program sponsor.

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