Editing Economy of Cuba (section)

===Services===
====Tourism ====
{{Main|Tourism in Cuba}}
[[File:Varaderobeach.jpg|thumb|left|200px|A white sand beach in [[Varadero|Varadero, Cuba]]]]
In the mid-1990s, tourism surpassed sugar, the mainstay of the Cuban economy, as the primary source of foreign exchange. Havana devotes significant resources to building tourist facilities and renovating historic structures. Cuban officials estimate roughly 1.6&nbsp;million tourists visited Cuba in 1999, yielding about $1.9 [[1000000000 (number)|billion]] in gross revenues. In 2000, 1,773,986 foreign visitors arrived in Cuba. Revenue from tourism reached US$1.7&nbsp;billion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Cuba-TOURISM-TRAVEL-AND-RECREATION.html|title=Tourism, travel, and recreation – Cuba|website=Mationsencyclopedia.com|access-date=11 June 2015}}</ref> By 2012, some 3 million visitors brought nearly £2&nbsp;billion yearly.<ref>{{youTube|id=3LoFX3uhctI |title=BBC 2012 SimonReeve}}</ref>

The growth of tourism has had social and economic repercussions. This led to speculation of the emergence of a two-tier economy<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/conferences/cuba/TLCP/Volume%201/Facio.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725185350/http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/conferences/cuba/TLCP/Volume%201/Facio.pdf|title=Tourism in Cuba during the Special Period|archive-date=25 July 2010}}</ref> and the fostering of a state of [[tourist segregation|tourist apartheid]]. This situation was exacerbated by the influx of dollars during the 1990s, potentially creating a dual economy based on the dollar (the currency of tourists) on the one hand and the peso on the other. Scarce imported goods – and even some local manufactures, such as [[rum]] and coffee – could be had at dollar-only stores but were hard to find or unavailable at peso prices. As a result, Cubans who earned only in the peso economy, outside the tourist sector, were at a disadvantage. Those with dollar incomes based upon the service industry began to live more comfortably. This widened the gap between Cubans' material living standards, conflicting with the Cuban government's long-term socialist policies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://traveloutward.com/articles/caribbean/6-03_cuba.shtml |title=Lessons From Cuba |date=4 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030628061024/http://www.traveloutward.com/articles/caribbean/6-03_cuba.shtml |archive-date=28 June 2003 |access-date=21 January 2017}} Travel Outward</ref>

====Retail====
Cuba has a small retail sector. A few large shopping centers operated in Havana as of September 2012 but charged US prices. Pre-Revolutionary commercial districts were largely shut down. Most stores are small dollar stores, bodegas, agro-mercados (farmers' markets), and street stands.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Cuba.html|title=Cuba|website=Nationsencyclopedia.com|access-date=11 June 2015}}</ref>