Education, culture pave way to Cuba for US travelers

As the United States and Cuba begin to normalize relations for the first time in half a century, some US visitors are already roaming the streets of Old Havana, attending dance exhibitions and lectures on architecture as they take part in scripted cultural tours that can cost more than a decent used car back home.

The US visitors are participants in the highly regulated "people-to-people" travel that President Barack Obama first permitted in 2011 in an early move toward detente with Cuba. The program aims to increase interaction with ordinary Cubans.

The tours tend to attract people sympathetic to improving ties with Cuba.

Jonathan Anderson, a 33-year-old from Denver on an eight-day excursion that cost $6,000 per person, said the visitors from the US were "coming here to reinforce ties".

Travel experts said on Sunday that the reestablishment of relations with Cuba, which Obama announced four days earlier, goes far beyond the 2011 reform and could sharply increase US tourism in the coming years.

Among the changes, Obama directed the Treasury Department to expand the categories of travelers who can go to Cuba without requesting a license from the department first. Soon to be covered by a standing, blanket travel permit are participants in educational activities, the category that covers most people-to-people travel. Experts said eliminating the licensing requirement could greatly reduce the costs of organized tours by cutting paperwork. Perhaps more important, it could allow huge numbers of US citizens to travel to Cuba legally on their own.

In the past, people-to-people travelers could only go to Cuba under a license obtained by a travel company. It was a time-consuming process followed by lengthy government verification that travelers wouldn't be engaging in inappropriate leisure tourism.

"We can't go to the beach and drink mojitos all day," said Tony Pandola, who was leading Anderson's trip with Global Expeditions of San Francisco, California. "That doesn't have any sort of objective as an educational or cultural exchange."

Now, according to travel experts awaiting regulations expected within weeks, it appears that tour companies will be able to head to Cuba and simply give the US government their word that they're engaging in educational travel and not ordinary tourism. Some think the new "general license" travel permits will apply to individuals, allowing people to go on their own.

General tourism to Cuba is still prohibited by the half-century-old trade embargo, which requires an act of Congress to lift. But that hasn't stopped many US residents from traveling to Cuba through a third country and keeping quiet about it when they go through immigration and customs upon arrival back in the United States.

The number of US travelers to Cuba has increased steadily each year, from about 245,000 in 2007 to nearly 600,000 last year, according to a report by the US-based Havana Consulting Group. The most recent statistics from Cuba's government show that about 73,500 US residents visited in 2011, but that doesn't include dual citizens whom it counts as Cuban.

(China Daily 12/23/2014 page10)