The last two years\u2019 boom in U.S. visitors to Cuba as a consequence of the thaw between the two countries was in the sight of the current U.S. president and his Cuban-American advisers, anxious to tighten the rope around the neck of the island\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
Trump had advanced it on June 16 in Miami\u2019s Manuel Artime Theater: the categories authorized to travel to Cuba would be revised, the individual \u201cpeople-to-people\u201d trips would be forbidden and a greater control would be applied to the other categories.<\/p>\n
The more than 346.000 Americans \u2013 none as tourists \u2013 who traveled to Cuba in the first semester of 2017 \u2013 a 149 percent increase with respect to the same period last year, according to a recent article in The Hill \u2013 and the more than half million that should be registered at the close of the year, were much more than what Trump seemed ready to allow.<\/p>\n
Five months later, after many debates, tensions and lobbying, the sanctions took effect and fulfilled \u2013 at least on paper \u2013 what was announced, with the denunciation of alleged acoustic attacks against U.S. diplomats in Havana and the Department of State warning to its citizens to not travel to the island as a backdrop.<\/p>\n
In principle, the result has been that of concern and uncertainty. For the time being the real reach of the approved restrictions has generated more questions than answers among possible visitors.<\/p>\n
A few days ago, John Kavulich, who presides over the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said to EFE news agency that the new regulations were designed \u201cto create anxiety among travelers and businesses, and that is exactly what it is achieving.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Kavulich, the possible reduction of U.S. visitors to Cuba will be the principal negative effect of the Trump measures, an opinion shared by other businesspeople and analysts.<\/p>\n
One of the principal focuses of attention is the \u2013 announced and carried out by Trump \u2013prohibition of the individual \u201cpeople-to-people\u201d trips and keeping the category of \u201csupport for the Cuban people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Zuccato, general manager of Cuba Travel Services, in Cypress, California, estimates that \u201cnot all [Americans] are familiarized with these terms. They are going to get mixed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zuccato reminded the Travel Market Report site that the \u201cpeople-to-people\u201d category \u2013 the fruit of the relaxing of trips to Cuba by the Obama administration \u2013 was the most popular before the new regulations because it gave individual travelers \u201cgreater freedom to carry out their activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its elimination supposes a real change in the Obama policy. However, in the opinion of Zuccato, \u201cif people want to travel to the island, they may do so. The real impact is the confusion and hysteria, and the appearance that traveling to Cuba is banned.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an alternative to travel individually to the island the \u201csupport for the Cuban people\u201d category stayed the same, and neither were other categories like family, religious, humanitarian and professional visits affected.<\/p>\n
The authorization for the U.S. airlines and cruise companies to travel to Cuba remains the same, although in the case of the first some have announced cuts and suspensions faced by the new scenario.<\/p>\n
For John McAuliff, executive director of the Cuba-U.S. Fund for the Reconciliation and Development of the People-to-People Alliance, it is a \u201cchange in terminology\u201d that doesn\u2019t close the island\u2019s doors to visitors from his country.<\/p>\n
However, not everything is that simple.<\/p>\n
William LeoGrande, professor of the American University, explains that the \u201csupport for the Cuban people\u201d category demands \u201ca complete agenda of actions that are, in effect, designed to undermine the Cuban government\u2019s authority.\u201d In his opinion, this requirement \u201cwill certainly dissuade some travelers, because doing that could suppose for them legal problems in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the Cuban authorities, after the announcement of the measures, showed their nonconformity with that section, to which they attributed a \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201csubversive\u201d intention.<\/p>\n
According to the Department of the Treasury, the \u201csupport for the Cuban people\u201d category seeks to \u201cstrengthen civil society in Cuba.\u201d Any person who travels under it must comply with a full-time schedule of activities that represents \u201ca significant interaction with the Cuban people,\u201d an ambiguous concept that, according to Chad Olin, CEO and founder of the Miami-based Cuba Candela Company devoted to personalized tours to the island, \u201ccould make it difficult for an average traveler to feel comfortable requesting this permit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although traveling under that category only implies filling a box in a form on the plane, and does not demand \u2013 for the time being \u2013 presenting any prior itinerary to the Department of the Treasury, Olin adds another aspect to take into consideration: the fact that travelers have to keep all the receipts of their visit to Cuba for five years in case the Department of the Treasury carries out an audit that can imply fines for noncompliance.<\/p>\n
Olin believes that this reason can incline many to go on group trips. \u201cThere is always the possibility of an audit or that the U.S. customs questions you on returning. But if you travel with an authorized group you shouldn\u2019t worry. Its organizers are in charge of that for you,\u201d he affirms.<\/p>\n
Despite its ambiguities and restrictions, Trump\u2019s new measures against Cuba are not the slam that many feared and others wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that beyond the prohibition of hotels and other tourist sites, the situation hasn\u2019t changed much beyond renaming the category of independent trips,\u201d said John McAuliff to Travel Market Report.<\/p>\n
The Airbnb platform, on which since it entered Cuba more than 22,000 rooms for rent were registered, was one of the first U.S. companies to react to Trump\u2019s measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate that the hosts continue having the opportunity of sharing their space and that the guests can continue visiting the island. The hosts in Cuba have received guests from all over the world and these regulations will allow Airbnb to continue supporting private Cubans who share their homes,\u201d the company pointed out in a communiqu\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Tom Popper, president of the insightCuba Agency, is of the opinion that the fact that Americans can still travel to Cuba is good news.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen President Trump announced last summer that he was going to repeal Obama\u2019s policies of commercial opening and travel relations with Cuba, we didn\u2019t know what was going to happen,\u201d Popper explains. \u201cBut here we are in November and the people can still travel\u2026. Most of the Obama policy changes are still in force.\u201d<\/p>\n
His point of view seems to be backed by U.S. travel agencies and tour operators that, after the measures took effect, referred to their scarce impact on their business.<\/p>\n
The Globus Agency told Travel Market Report that the new regulations have \u201cno negative effect\u201d on their programs and these are \u201cin complete compliance\u201d with said regulations.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Tauck Tours anticipated a \u201czero impact\u201d on its operations on the island, and said that it expected to operate 100 percent of its programmed departures for 2017 and 2018. It even went further: \u201cthe prohibition of the individual trips to Cuba (and the resumed requirement that U.S. citizens visit only as part of an authorized group) will probably boost additional business our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
This position is also shared by Chad Olin, of the Cuba Candela Company, who insists that the group trips are a viable alternative for Americans: \u201cThe persons seeking to go on their own to Cuba are now getting together in groups. And we are hearing about people with booked trips who are seeking a clarification.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the lack of clarity, the average traveler will have difficulties to depend on the individual trip permit, but what most Americans are not aware of is that they can still comply with the government regulations with a group made up of just two persons. They can make up their own group with friends, family, and still comply with the requirements,\u201d Olin affirms.<\/p>\n
And there could be other gaps in the new regulations.<\/p>\n
Peter Hakim, president emeritus of the Center for Inter-American Dialogue Studies, estimates that \u201cthe difficulty in understanding the regulation\u201d will drive \u201csome travelers to get to Cuba through other means, like Mexico and Canada,\u201d a usual method in the past.<\/p>\n
And Michael Zuccato remembers that \u201cCuba has been a successful destination without the United States. And if to continue being so means changing hotels to different ministries, marketing for different entering groups, then it will make the necessary adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The regulations approved until now prevent U.S. visitors from staying in Cuba in some 80 state-run hotels, using two travel agencies, visiting five marinas as well as different shops and other Cuban entities linked to the island\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n
According to Travel Market Report, \u201cthese restrictions could affect a tourist\u2019s desire to experience the authentic Cuban culture, since U.S. travelers will supposedly trace their activities while in Cuba, and will present a register of the same to the U.S. officials on their return if requested to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank Reno, president of Cuba Executive Travel Inc. in Apollo Beach, Florida, regretted the prohibition of certain hotels since he considers \u201cfundamental\u201d that the trips by Americans to Cuba have \u201cthe comforts that could be expected in other destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n
So did the Ya\u2019lla Tours Company, which used in Baracoa, in the eastern tip of Cuba, hotels \u201cowned by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless something changes, we will no longer be able to include that area in our programs,\u201d the company pointed out in a communiqu\u00e9. However, it recognized that the general impact of the sanctions on its business in Cuba would be very little and commented that \u201cmany of the forbidden hotels are beach resorts, which doesn\u2019t affect Ya\u2019lla Tours or any other U.S. operator, since beach holidays have never been allowed by virtue of the travel restrictions between the United States and Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, up to now what has been regulated is not definitive. Different analysts opine that, just as Trump announced in June, there could be updates of the restricted entities and services. Factors like the possible reaction of the Cuban government in relation to the measures \u2013 and until now it has limited itself to official statements \u2013 and pressure from the Cuban-American lobby in Congress could tighten them.<\/p>\n
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, for example, showed his dissatisfaction with the measures and asked the Trump government for more restrictions. That, for example, he forbid dealings with other Cuban tourist companies, like the Gran Caribe and Cubanac\u00e1n hotel chains.<\/p>\n
Rubio regretted that \u201cthe bureaucrats in the Department of State who are opposed to the president\u2019s Cuba policy refused to implement it completely.\u201d His opinion is shared by other Republican congresspeople and politicians, who demand putting greater pressure on the Havana government.<\/p>\n
Despite this, for tour operators and businesspeople like Michael Zuccato and Tom Popper, the coming into force of the measures at least put an end to the previous mystery, and to a great deal of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Americans, Travel Market Report reaffirms, \u201ccan still travel to Cuba, with greater freedom than at any other time in decades, except for the brief period in which individual travel to Cuba was allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the specialized publication, it is true that \u201cno one can predict what President Trump will do at a given time. But it seems he has other things on his mind for a long time to come. His original proclamation that he was going to repeal Obama\u2019s Cuba policies introduced uncertainty in the market and the tour operators saw that the slowness was turning into demand. Now, after a year, that uncertainty has been lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the time being.<\/p>\n
TN: Quotes were retranslated from the Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The last two years\u2019 boom in U.S. visitors to Cuba as a consequence of the thaw between the two countries was in the sight of the current U.S. president and his Cuban-American advisers, anxious to tighten the rope around the neck of the island\u2019s government. Trump had advanced it on June 16 in Miami\u2019s Manuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3134,"featured_media":108190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13944],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33546,8689],"class_list":["post-108173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba-usa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n