Diane Francis. National Post. Tuesday, April 18, 2000
A Canadian specialty tour operator will today announce a way that Americans can tour Cuba for the first time in two generations without running afoul of their government.
An American cannot buy Cuban goods or services without obtaining a special licence from the U.S. Treasury Department. Only a few thousand are granted each year to journalists, diplomats or sports figures competing internationally in Cuba.
Blyth & Company of Toronto has a way around this problem with the announcement today in New York of twice weekly cruises from Nassau to Havana and back.
"What we've done here is we're going to move everybody to Cuba in a Canadian cruise ship, park the ship in Havana Harbor where they will be housed and fed. They cannot spend money onshore so we have a non-related Canadian foundation which is going to pay for their ground costs while they
are in Cuba, for tours or sightseeing," explained tour owner Sam Blyth yesterday.
"We'll show them everything. We're organizing meetings with Cuban students, professionals and have lots of `people contacts' organized. We have special access to the UNESCO project in Old Havana. We will have packed lunches if the American travellers want to stay off the ship for lunch. If
they want to bike around Havana, they can rent a bike off the ship. As for bus and walking tours, the foundation pays for all of that."
The foundation is controlled and financed by Canadians, Mr. Blyth said.
"The foundation is not getting reimbursed [from Blyth & Company] and is doing it to further its goal of people-to-people contact with Cubans," he said. "The foundation [and its backers] wish to remain anonymous."
The four-day cruises include all meals and start at a midrange price level of $355 (US) per person and go up to $1,795 (US) for a large suite. Tours to Cuba cannot be sold through American travel agents, because it is against the law for them to profit from selling Cuban goods and services. But
Mr. Blyth's ship and tour company are Canadian-owned and major American media have agreed to take Blyth & Company advertisements to promote the tours to Americans.
"We've had a legal opinion from a major Washington law firm ... which gives us to believe that this operation is completely within American laws," Mr. Blyth said.
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