Experts expect surge in Cuba tourism under Obama opening

HAVANA — As the United States and Cuba begin to normalise relations for the first time in half a century, some Americans are already roaming the streets of Old Havana, attending dance exhibitions and talks on architecture as they take part in scripted cultural tours that can cost more than a decent used car back home.

The US visitors are participants in the highly-regulated “people-to-people” travel that President Barack Obama permitted in 2011 in one of his first moves toward detente with Cuba. The program aims to increase interaction with ordinary Cubans without creating uncomfortable images of Americans lounging on beaches in a single-party state. The tours tend to attract people sympathetic to improving ties with President Raul Castro’s government.

“It’s pre-selected for people who already want there to be change,” said Mr Jonathan Anderson, a 33-year-old from Denver on an eight-day excursion that cost US$6,000 (S$7,917) per person. “People aren’t coming here to see how evil Castro is. They are coming here to reinforce ties.”

Travel experts said yesterday (Dec 21) that the new opening to Cuba that Mr Obama announced four days earlier goes far beyond the 2011 reform and could sharply increase US tourism in the coming years.

Among the changes, Mr Obama directed the Treasury Department to expand the categories of travellers who can go to Cuba without requesting a licence from the department first. Soon to be covered by a standing, blanket travel permit are participants in educational activities, the category that covers most people-to-people travel. Experts said that eliminating the licensing requirement could greatly reduce the costs of organised tours by cutting paperwork. It also could, perhaps more importantly, allow huge numbers of Americans to legally travel on their own to Cuba.

In the past, people-to-people travellers could only go to Cuba under a license obtained by a travel company in a time-consuming process followed by lengthy government verification that travellers weren’t engaging in inappropriate leisure tourism.

“We can’t go to the beach and drink mojitos all day,” said Mr Tony Pandola, who was leading Mr Anderson’s trip with Global Expeditions of San Francisco, California. “That doesn’t have any sort of objective as an educational or cultural exchange.”

Now, according to travel experts awaiting regulations expected within weeks, it appears tour companies will be able to head to Cuba and simply give the US government their word that they’re engaging in educational travel and not ordinary tourism. Some think the new “general licence” travel permits would apply to individuals, allowing people to go on their own.

“As long as with integrity they can say they’re going to engage with the Cuban people and learn about Cuba and talk about the United States then they don’t have to do anything other than say that’s what they’re doing,” said Mr John McAuliff, executive director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, which has organised trips in the past.

The easing of tourism regulations is a gamble for both the US and Cuba.

Mr Obama said on Wednesday that people-to-people travel was a way to “empower the Cuban people”. At the same time, a US tourism surge could funnel sorely needed cash to a tourism industry run mostly by what Mr Obama described Friday as “a regime that represses its people”.

Experts don’t expect American tourists to flood Cuba immediately after the new regulations are published. The daunting complexity of the legal details and the possibility, even remote, of fines for violations will probably mean most new travel to Cuba will still go through tour organisers. Those organisers are currently required to do business with state-run travel companies, meaning tour agendas are now almost entirely under the purview of the Cuban government.

People-to-people travel can cost US$2,000 to US$6,000 per person and tour organisers are supposed to keep the formal itinerary full to meet US regulations. “We can go out and see things but we have to conform to the rules,” Mr Anderson said.

General tourism to Cuba is still prohibited by the half-century old trade embargo, and it would take an act of Congress to lift it. But that hasn’t stopped many Americans from travelling to Cuba through a third country and keeping quiet about it when they go through immigration and customs upon arrival back in the United States.

The number of US travellers to Cuba has increased steadily each year, from about 245,000 in 2007 to nearly 600,000 last year, according to a report by the US-based Havana Consulting Group. The most recent statistics from Cuba’s government show that about 73,500 Americans visited in 2011, but that doesn’t include dual citizens who it counts as Cuban.

Mr Tom Popper, president of tour organiser Insight Cuba, said he thinks many new travellers to Cuba will take organised tours because it can be difficult for an individual to organise a trip that meets Treasury Department requirements.

Still, eliminating the licence requirement will remove a significant bureaucratic hurdle, according to Mr Popper, whose last application was more than 700 pages long.

“This is such welcome news to us,” Mr Popper said.

And the appeal of visiting Cuba goes beyond education to some Americans.

“I’m looking for a warm climate, it’s historical obviously and it’s also a place that most Americans don’t go,” said Dr Katja Von Tiesenhausen, a 41-year-old emergency room doctor from Boston, taking part in another tour. AP