Artificial Place

Over the reading week I went on vacation to Cayo Coco, Cuba. While studying for the exam, I began thinking that the travel industry revolves around artificial places. When my friends have asked me how Cuba was, I say it was great, then I think of how someone in Cuba would answer that same question. I think that their idea of Cuba is much different than mine. When I travelled to the nearest city it was a much different picture than what one sees while on the resort. The tourism industry, especially in places in the Caribbean attempts to create an ideal sense of place for tourists, and they do this by keeping the true country hidden. It is hidden becasue it is not part of what tourists want to see when they go on vacation, they don't want to see the poverty or pollution of cities, they only want to see white sandy beaches and the clear ocean while walking on the clean resort. Cayo Coco is an island off of the mainland of Cuba and it is a completely created and built place for tourism purposes. No Cubans live on the island, they all have to travel from the mainland via a man-made causeway. This causeway can be seen as a metaphor for crossing from the real to the imaginary. It is just something to think about, good luck on the exam everyone.