End of Ban on US Travel to Cuba Near?

(Dive Travel Business News - June 30, 2010) -- In a vote of 25 to 20, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee approved the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act.  This is the first hurdle towards lifting the ban on US travel to Cuba, in a measure that also eases restrictions on the sale of American commodities there.  The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act must still get through another House committee and pass the full House. Then the Senate would have to pass its own version of the bill before it could be signed by the president.

Before the final vote, the Agriculture Committee rejected several amendments that would have eliminated the travel ban reversal or delayed its enactment. Opponents of the bill argue that while export restrictions should be eased, lifting the travel ban would benefit only the Communist government led by Fidel and Raúl Castro.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the son of Cuban immigrants, has promised to filibuster any move to pass the bill in the Senate. Some observers are not sure President Obama wants to use up political capital to fully support the measure given his other legislative objectives.

Nevertheless, travel industry supporters of the legislation view it as a significant step that bodes well for an end to the ban on travel to Cuba with a number of professional travel associations actively lobbying to lift the ban. 

In March, Cuban government and travel industry leaders met at the U.S. Cuba Travel Summit in Cancun. At the summit, Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz outlined the growth of hotel room inventory throughout the nation, including many four- and five-star properties and a number of joint projects with international investors. He also detailed the expansion of Cuba’s airports from three to 10, a fleet of motorcoaches and over 10,000 rental cars, fishing and sailing vessels, beaches along all the shores, cultural and heritage sites and a variety of eco-tourism sites.  

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) also addressed the U.S. Cuba Travel Summit by teleconference and expressed his confidence that a bill authorizing open U.S. travel to Cuba could meet the 60 vote threshold required in the U.S. Senate this year.

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