The Big Dog’s Back Cuba, Opening Soon? By Capt. Cheryl Barr It’s mainly sailboats that are lining the seawall at Marina Hemingway.
W
ill the travel ban on Americans going to Cuba lift soon…or has it already been lifted? From what I’ve seen the past two years in Havana and in other tourist destinations in Cuba, the island is hopping with American visitors. This new crop of tourists is filling the streets of Havana, and it seems they can’t get enough photos of colorful vintage American autos and Spanish colonial architecture—and they are forming long line-ups just to wrap their fingers around a cool mojito or daiquiri in an old Cuban bar made famous in the ’40s and ’50s by Ernest Hemingway. In fact, business has been so brisk that Havana
One Stop Shop: Custom Sails Rigging Electronics
had little choice but to repair and open the original Sloppy Joe’s bar that has been closed since the early ’60s. Is it premature to say, “Move over Key West, ‘cause the big dog’s moving back in”? U.S. Package Tours to Cuba Cuba suffered its most severe economic crisis in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and all Soviet funding ceased. Since then, Cuba has warm-heartedly welcomed and received tourists from around the world. Due to the United States’ economic/travel embargo against Cuba, Americans are the only tourists who, until now, have been conspicuous by their absence. In 2010, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) made it possible for American citizens of non-Cuban descent to visit Cuba on authorized tour packages (Cuban-Americans can travel as frequently as they like). An unwritten proviso is that these tourists must arrive on the island by airplane and, of all things, not visit a beach. For the 2013/14 travel season, Americans will find a multitude of U.S. tour operators, with OFAC general licensing selling so many package tours it makes your head spin. It is estimated that 600,000 American tourists will visit Cuba in 2014. It’s true that the majority will be CubanAmericans but many are your average Joes taking part in “people-to-people cultural exchange tours” as this, for now, is the only way a U.S. citizen can legally visit Cuba. Consequently, every tour operator in the United States is getting in on the act. Booking package tours are Insight Travel (the biggest operator) and high-end companies such as National Geographic, but also low-end operators like the Chamber of Commerce and university alumni groups. Any legitimate tour operator can apply for and will obtain the necessary license to take American tourists to Cuba. Hence the “overnight” increase in Americans visiting Cuba. This new U.S.-to-Cuba tourist boom, however, has put a huge crush on flights to the island (remember the unwritten proviso that Americans must arrive by air). So, on November 15, scheduled flights from Key West to Havana resumed after being suspended for more than 60 years. There is now a 30-minute flight every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Scheduled flights from Miami, Tampa, Houston and New York City have been operating for some time but are currently running at over capacity.
SEE US AT THE MIAMI STRICTLY SAIL BOAT SHOW, FEB. 13-17 BOOTH 923
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February 2014
SOUTHWINDS
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