By EDWIN Mcdowell.
The New York Times, November
5, 2000.
AMERICANS who hoped that visiting Cuba as tourists might become less
complicated saw those hopes evaporate last weekend when President Clinton signed
a bill that, among other things, codifies the existing restrictions on United
States tourists. The bill also prevents the president or his successors from
changing the prohibitions without the approval of Congress.
But for all the Congressional huffing and puffing over passage of the bill,
tour operators say things are not likely to change much, if at all. Naturalized
American citizens born in Cuba will still be allowed to travel there, as
apparently will Americans who go as part of humanitarian, educational or
athletic groups. Just about the only people likely to be affected by the
legislation are Americans not born in Cuba who want to travel there on their own
rather than in groups. And Americans who might otherwise have gone to Cuba
illegally may decide not to, rather than test the United States government's
resolve to enforce the newly codified law.
The main target of the law is not tourism but agriculture. And although
aimed primarily at Cuba, it also affects Iran, Libya, North Korea and Sudan.
While it allows all five countries to buy American food and medicine, only Cuba
will be barred from paying for them with United States government credits or
loans from private United States banks.
That prohibition and the codification of the travel restrictions were added
at the urging of Cuban-American members of Congress from Florida. And with that
state widely regarded as pivotal in the presidential election, few members of
Congress from either party wanted to risk alienating the sizeable Cuban-American
voting bloc by opposing the restrictions.
Still, that may not be the end of the matter. Officials of both parties have
vowed to try to remove the travel ban in the next session of Congress. And a
recent poll of 1,975 Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County, conducted by
researchers at Florida International University in Miami, found that while 62.4
percent of respondents still favored retaining the economic embargo, 52.8
percent wanted unrestricted travel to Cuba.
Moreover, American hotel companies, airlines and the many cruise lines
registered abroad but headquartered in the United States are eager to compete
with the Canadian and European companies that already operate or own hotels and
nightclubs in Cuba. Also, tour operators think that Cuba will be a big
attraction for American tourists.
"New ports are always exciting to people who like to cruise," said
Tom Hicks, owner of Kruger Travel, a tour operator in Little rock, Ark. "I
have a feeling many of our customers would like to take a cruise to Cuba. I'd
like to see it myself."
Tammy Selee, marketing director of Harmon Tours in Boise, Idaho, also thinks
that lifting restrictions would create an initial flurry of interest. "But
they may find that it'll look more like a third world nation than that romantic
isle we're used to seeing in old movies."
Other tour operators have similar reservations. Barbara Osman, president of
4 Seasons Tours and Travel in Wilmington, Del., said, "Before I'd send a
group there I'd have to go myself to sample the food and see if the
accommodations and infrastructure would live up to their expectations."
Despite the formalizing of the ban, few travel officials expect the number
of American visitors to Cuba to decline. In fact, the law calls for creation of
a new travel category that will allow Americans to visit to sell food and other
agricultural products.
Cuba's Tourism Ministry said some 165,000 Americans visited the island last
year. That included about 100,000 naturalized Americans born in Cuba and still
considered Cuban citizens by the Castro government. Many of the others also
traveled there legally, usually as part of humanitarian, religious, athletic,
educational or cultural delegations. Those who entered illegally from Canada,
Mexico and the Bahamas were able to circumvent United States law with the help
of Cuban immigration authorities, who did not stamp their passports lest they be
penalized upon their return.
"I know several people in Idaho who flew to Cancún and then to
Cuba," said Ms. Selee of Harmon Tours in Boise.
Cuba Cruise Corporation said its 550-passenger Funchal will begin
twice-weekly cruises between Nassau and Havana on Nov. 18; on Dec. 24 it will be
joined by the 350-passenger Arion. (Both will be renamed La Habana for these
cruises.)
Sam Blyth, president of Cuba Cruise, said Americans are eligible to go on
either ship because both will feature educational programs and because while in
Cuba the Americans will be guests of the Centre for Education and Training, a
nonprofit Canadian organization specializing in high school courses. Under such
an arrangement, he said, they do not risk running afoul of the Treasury
Department, which does not actually prohibit Americans from visiting the island
but prevents them from spending any money if they go.
Information about traveling to Cuba is available from the State Department
at www.travel.state.gov/cuba.html or also at www.state.gov/www/regions/wha/cuba
/travel.html and www.treas.gov/ofac.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company | 