Has American travel to Cuba reached its peak? In recent years, the Cuba travel business has been booming, thanks to the Obama administration green-lighting people-to-people (P2P) trips by U.S. citizens, even as more Cuban-Americans visit their relatives on the island.
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Cuba exploits its offshore keys for big ecotourism potential
By Domingo Amuchastegui
Faced with the collapse of communist Eastern Europe and the USSR in the early ‘90s, Cuba turned to tourism in a desperate bid for cash even though its economy was in shambles, it had little in the way of foreign investment or skilled labor, and the island was surrounded by competition from Florida, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean destinations.
ASCE Miami meeting Aug. 1-3 to feature record number of Cuba-based scholars
By Doreen Hemlock
Ever since the USSR collapsed two decades ago, a group of scholars has been meeting every summer in Miami to discuss the reality in Cuba and what the Castro government might do to revive its troubled economy.
Marrero reveals tourism growth plans
By Domingo Amuchastegui
Twenty years ago, when Cuba’s tourism industry was still in its infancy, a well-known Dominican economist attending a Havana conference declared: “Thank God for the U.S. embargo. If it’s lifted, the Caribbean will have to meet its biggest rival.”
OFAC crackdown on P2P Cuba licenses frustrates once-optimistic travel firms
By Larry Luxner
The 50-year-old U.S. travel ban against Cuba, along with Europe’s crippling economic crisis — which has denied thousands of would-be vacationers the chance to visit the island — has nevertheless failed to put a dent in Cuba’s tourism industry.
Parcel senders shifting from air to sea as new Cuban import duties take effect
By Doreen Hemlock
For weeks, Cuban-Americans arrived at its office in droves, dropping off packages for loved ones on the island. They were rushing to beat the Sep. 3 deadline when Cuba was to increase duties on such parcels.
Puerto Rico-Cuba Charter Flights May Resume This Month
By Larry Luxner
Last year, California-based Cuba Travel Services launched, with great fanfare, the first direct charter flights between Puerto Rico and Cuba since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
Cuba targets northern keys for aggressive tourism growth
By Larry Luxner
The northern keys of Villa Clara, Ciego de Avila and Camagüey — site of Cuba’s 32nd annual International Tourism Fair (FIT 2012) will soon add 5,507 rooms in four- and five-star hotels.
Cuban diplomats sound off at New York’s annual Left Forum
By Vito Echevarria
The Left Forum, an annual event hosted by New York’s Pace University, held a discussion titled “New Developments in Cuba” — yet the Mar. 17 seminar was overshadowed by the absence of its original guest speakers: Juan Lamiguero, deputy chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, and Patricia Pego Guerra, its first secretary.
OFAC nixes Florida-Cuba passenger ferry idea
By Doreen Hemlock
Forget about boarding a ferry in Florida to see Pope Benedict XVI in Cuba this month. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has denied an application from Havana Ferry Partners to offer service to Cuba for the pope’s visit — or for any other occasion.
OFAC’s P2P Cuba travel rules anger TSPs; some lawmakers move to scrap program
By Vito Echevarria
It may seem obvious, but U.S. travel service providers (TSPs) hoping to offer “people-to-people” (P2P) trips to Cuba should carefully study all relevant regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Otherwise, warns attorney Jennifer Díaz of the Florida law firm Becker & Poliakoff, they could end up paying the consequences.
OFAC revokes some TSP licenses while authorizing others
By Vito Echevarria
Has American travel to Cuba reached its peak? In recent years, the Cuba travel business has been booming, thanks to the Obama administration green-lighting people-to-people (P2P) trips by U.S. citizens, even as more Cuban-Americans visit their relatives on the island.
Tourist arrivals to Cuba increase, despite eurozone troubles
By Armando H. Portela
Exactly 2,021,649 foreigners landed on Cuban soil during the first eight months of 2012 — a 5.2% rise over the same period in 2011 — despite the savage European financial crisis which has made a Caribbean vacation impossible for thousands of Spaniards, Italians, Greeks and others.
In-flight magazine now available on charter flights to Cuba
By Doreen Hemlock
Anew in-flight magazine is now being distributed on U.S. charter flights to Cuba. The monthly magazine, OnCuba, is the brainchild of entrepreneur Hugo Cancio and his Miami-based Fuego Media Group.
U.S. charters struggle with weak demand for Cuba flights
By Doreen Hemlock
U.S. charter flights to Cuba are getting a boost from Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island later this month, but demand for year-round service remains limited, delaying plans to add flights from more U.S. gateway cities.
Bill Hauf hopes to inaugurate BWI-Havana flights this fall
By Larry Luxner
Imagine boarding a Boeing 727 jet at Baltimore-Washington International right after lunch, and landing in Havana just in time for a late-afternoon stroll along the Malecón.
Since relaxation of OFAC rules, ‘people-to-people’ takes off
By Ana Radelat
Do a Google search for anything related to Cuba, and an ad for Insight Cuba — which organizes and sells trips to the island — will likely pop up.
OFAC Fine-Tunes Cuba Travel Regulations
By Larry Luxner
In response to complaints by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) about “frivolous” people-to-people programs that do nothing to promote political change in Cuba, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has made some minor revisions in its regulations governing travel to Cuba.
From the Travel Archives
KLM BACK IN CUBA FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 1943
After a 68-year absence, Dutch airline KLM resumed operations in Havana with the Nov. 1 arrival of a flight from Amsterdam.
Cuba approves direct air service between Tampa and Havana
The Cuban government has given the green light to air service between Tampa and Havana, with once-a-week charter flights beginning as early as Sep. 10. A second weekly flight will likely be added in October.
TOURISM CONTRIBUTES TO 2.9% GDP GROWTH
Thanks mostly to a rise in service exports and tourism, Cuba’s GDP is expected to grow 2.9 percent this year, Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca said earlier this month.
New charter flights spark Puerto Rican interest in Cuba
Cuba y Puerto Rico son de un pajaro las dos alas. Reciben flores y balas sobre el mismo corazón” [Cuba and Puerto Rico are the two wings of a bird. They receive flowers and bullets in the same heart.].
Cuba charter flights take off from many US airports, but is demand really there?
On a recent Saturday morning, truck driver Roman Subirat pushed six large suitcases through the check-in line for the first charter flight from Fort Lauderdale to Havana in decades.
Embargo backers take a long-shot stab at reversing lax Cuba travel regulations
Aface-off over Facebook is just one of many skirmishes that have erupted between the White House and embargo supporters over the liberalization of U.S. travel to Cuba.
