What a surprise!
The sight of the Stars and Stripes being hoisted over the newly opened US embassy in Cuba last week, was one of the most visible signs yet of the diplomatic rapprochement between the long-term foes.
If President Barack Obama gets his way, the US Congress will soon go further still and lift its 55-year-old trade embargo on the island.
Such a move would be a major boon to the Cuban economy, not least by unleashing a torrent of big-spending American tourists on the island, which has largely been starved of such arrivals for more than half a century.
This, however, could prove disastrous for some of the small islands elsewhere in the Caribbean which are heavily dependent on tourism. They could see much of the US tourism trade they have come to reply on decamping to the large, and quite possibly cheaper, new competitor in their midst.
… continue reading the Financial Times Cuban thaw poses tourism threat to Caribbean neighbours
Barbados Free Press 