7/15/2010

USA VOTE TO OPEN UP CUBA TO AMERICAN TOURIST


USA CUBA TRAVEL TO HOTELS
On June 30, 2010, the House Agriculture Committee voted to pass a new bill  HR 4645 - called  The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which eases payment restrictions on US food sales to Cuba. Also included in the Act is language that removes the restrictions on Americans so anyone can travel to Cuba. Specifically, section 2 of the Act reads states that "The President may not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or lawful permanent residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel; and any regulation in effect on such date of enactment that regulates or prohibits travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or lawful permanent residents or transactions incident to such travel shall ease to have any force or effect."

American Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi will decide when to restore the bill that will allow US citizens' right to travel to Cuba will get to the House floor for a vote, however, she has stated that she is in full support of this Cuba Travel bill and will bring it to the floor in the very near future.
In Cuba and with over 130 U.S. human rights, religious, humanitarian and trade groups from around the nation have pledged their support for HR 4645.

Cuba Travel Tour Operators held a video conference with top Cuban tourism officials in Havana on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, and asked them if they are ready for the "rush" of Americans if the U.S. travel ban is lifted as proposed by legislation now under consideration in the U.S. Congress.

"Americans really want to travel and see the real Cuba for themselves," said Robert Whitely, president of the U.S. Tour Operators, which together with the National Tour Association also present at the event, handles 75 percent of all package tour business to the Caribbean.

"We predict that at least 850,000 Americans will go to Cuba in the first year," Whitely said.

A fact-finding study from the U.S. International Tourism & Trade Commission supports this, noting, "The number of additional U.S. tourists arriving in Cuba annually, following removal of the travel ban, is estimated to be between 500,000 and 1 million in the first year reaching over 5 million in the next 10 years.

CUBA HOTEL INVESTMENTS

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