Travelers like Lukas Winter make solidarity trips to Cuba to deliver medical supplies, highlighting a rise in tourism committed to local needs. This approach contrasts with traditional tourist options and responds to challenges like epidemics and travel restrictions. Initiatives like Not Just Tourists inspire more people to combine vacations with humanitarian aid.
Lukas Winter from Germany is preparing for his 50th trip to Cuba in March, continuing work started in 1997 to deliver medical supplies. On his recent visit from December to January, he coordinated 26 volunteers who delivered over 300 kilograms of medicines during the chikungunya epidemic affecting thousands.
Winter collaborates with the local group Baracoa Ayuda de Corazón in that eastern city, which is isolated and poor, and with the Huellas project in Havana, aiding vulnerable people. He coordinates a network of over 30,000 solidarity supporters, many fans of the rock band Dritte Wahl, who donate money, hospital ventilators, and other items.
This tourism differs from that promoted by Cuban-American influencers to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, which avoids travel risks to Cuba under Trump's presidency. Reports indicate interrogations of Cuban-Americans returning from Cuba, discouraging visits that were previously a key market for the island. A false rumor about detentions of Americans at Cuban airports circulated to deter attendees at the January Jazz Plaza Festival.
"The question gets old and tiresome, ‘Is it safe to come?’ This isn’t Disneyland. It’s a beautiful, struggling country, with beautiful, struggling people," wrote Gypsy Sailors in the Facebook group Cuba Travel Tips, with over 109,000 members. Users promote spending at private businesses and carrying donations.
Giang Nam Nguyen, also from Germany, will travel in March with paracetamol, sweets, and items for needy children. Marianne Godstad Eriksen, a Norwegian resident in Trinidad, hosts volunteers for free at her hostel to care for the disabled, elderly, and poor. "We cook for people who can’t afford to buy food. We look after people who have no family," she wrote in January, drawing offers of help.
Since 1990, Not Just Tourists (NJT) has sent suitcases of supplies to over 100 countries, with the motto “Take a suitcase and change a life!” Avi D’Souza, director of the Toronto chapter, mentions deliveries of bandages and syringes highly appreciated in Cuba. Dave Hannon praised a recent donation: “NJT greatly facilitated the delivery to clinics in need.”
These actions connect people and spread love, improving lives in Cuba without partisan or religious affiliations.