Cuba tourism officials reported that more than 2.5 million tourists visited the island in 2009, up 3.3 percent from 2008’s record. Because of shorter stays and discounts, brought on by the global recession, total revenues were down overall. Foreign visitors generated over $2.7 billion in 2008, a 13.5 percent increase over 2007.
Public opinion polls in the U.S. indicated that two-thirds of travelers, including 68 percent of Cuban-Americans favor an end to all restrictions on travel to Cuba.
American Travel Restrictions to Cuba
The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which prohibits the U.S. president from regulating travel to and from Cuba and liberalizes agricultural trade, could be brought to a vote in the House of Representatives as early as this July.
If the bill passes the House, it will be attached to a Senate appropriations bill and, if approved, would go to President Obama, who already has said he would sign it into law. This would open travel to Cuba for all U.S. citizens starting in 2011.
Many tourist that visit Cuba go to the Fabulous Cuban beaches, lush organic farms, humble yet efficient schools, reforestation projects, aging hospitals, preserved historic forts and old Havana complete with a wide variety of restored classic automobiles. The relative scarcity of automobile internal combustion engines offered clear vistas and easier breathing. Cuba’s per capita CO² output is one-tenth that of all Americans living in the United States.
Hotel Nacional de Cuba
The Grand Dame of Cuban Hotels is the infamous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, a five-star hotel built in 1930 by the Cuban Mafia of those days like Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Segal, Myron Lansky, Capone and Teferante.
“There’s a growing sense in the business community that if we’re going to trade with North Korea, Vietnam, Russia and some countries in the Middle East, why aren’t Americans trading with Cuba?” said Thomas J. Donahue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (back in 2001) “People are asking fundamental questions about a policy that’s clearly illogical”.
A new Cuba Research Report entitled “Cuba at the Crossroads The Role of the U.S. Hospitality Industry in Cuba Tourism Initiatives” stated in 2007,
“The process of rapprochement can only start with the lifting of the U.S. embargo on Cuba. To that end, we encourage U.S. hospitality business interests of all types to urge the executive branch and Congress to eliminate the embargo, which has arguably outlived its original purpose… We see a historic opportunity for profitable investment in a “new Cuba”… we contend that now is the time to advance prescriptive, forward-thinking insight designed to shift the thinking of the U.S. business community about Cuba and, in so doing, shift the thinking of the Cuban government, businesses, and people about their neighbors to the worth.”
The time to open up Cuba to American Tourism & investment is finally upon us.
Invest in Cuba
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