The number of U.S. visitors without family ties in Cuba has jumped since the two countries started the process of warming up relations. Many of the visitors are flying to Cuba from other countries to avoid U.S. restrictions on just plain tourism; U.S. rules require that visitors fall into one of 12 categories and tourism isn’t one.
According to an economist at the University of Havana who has access to government figures, from January 1 to May 9 (using figure from the same period last year)
- U.S. visitors overall went from 37,459 to 51,438 (36)
- U.S. visitors on official direct flights increased from 29,213 to 38,476 (31%)
- U.S. visitors on third-country itineraries were 12,981 compared to 8,246 (up 57%)
- Overall visitors to Cuba from all countries was up 14%
Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are the most-common third countries. Travelers on official flights are supposed to avoid excess tourism, declare themselves as going “in support of the Cuban people” or “professional research” etc. and are required “to retain specific records related to the authorized travel transactions” for 5 years, but no one has spelled out what those records are and no one is checking them.
The big change for U.S. tourists to Cuba is that by allowing U.S. banks to process credit card charges and other transactions made in Cuba, and by eliminating the requirement for each tourist to apply for a State Department license, the whole process has been simplified, and many Americans want to “see Cuba before it’s not Cuba anymore.”
Photo: Visitors and Locals at Havana Cathedral (Wikimedia / Akasenn)