this trend through a series of exercises in demonstrating authenticity, such as guarantee seals and official government receipts. Competition in the Caribbean After the Cuban Revolution a number of Cuban Cigar manufacturers moved to other Caribbean countries to carry on production. The Dominican Republic's similar climate and tradition of cigar export assisted in integrating exiled Cuban producers. Consequently, its production of tobacco rose substantially. This was compounded by a second influx of immigrants from Nicaragua, which also has a favorable climate and soil for growing tobacco, after the Sandinista take over. Some of these immigrants were the same Cubans who had fled to Nicaragua from Cuba after the Cuban Revolution. Further growth was spurred in the Dominican Republic, which has over time become the largest premium exporter of cigars globally. Honduras lags behind its neighbors in cigar production due to sub-par infrastructure, problems controlling the spread of blue mould, and repeated large weather phenomena. The United States embargo has caused unfavorable market conditions for Cuban cigars versus its Caribbean counterparts, which have worked for over half a century to garner positive reputations and notoriety of their own. International renown and popularity Cuban cigars as a whole have a global reputation. A reason for this is a strong flavor profile, a result of their particular type of shade-grown tobacco. That profile and reputation are actively maintained. When the opportunity came in the 1990s to cultivate Connecticut leaf tobacco, a type of wrapper doing particularly well in Europe, Cuba refused, conscious of the fact that the Connecticut leaf's flavor profile was not conducive to the image cultivated around the Cuban cigar. The popularity of the Cuban cigar has also manifested as a near-constant demand from Central-and-Western Europe, but that demand extends beyond the West as well; China is the third largest market for Cuban cigars, despite the Chinese trade system driving the price up significantly. Interest in Cuban cigars has also influenced one of Cuba's tourism industries. Cigar tourism is a particular form of Cuban tourism wherein the tourists are taken on a cigar factory tour, and are given the option to purchase cigars at the end of the tour. These purchases come with special receipts and customs certificates which guarantee authenticity and allow cigars to be transported legally out of the country. Cigar tourism, combined with the expensiveness of Cuban cigars, leads some Cubans with access to cigars to attempt to