Cuba. Since June 5th this year, the US Treasury Department put into effect a bunch of measures aimed at “reversing the relaxation of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime,” said Steve Mnuchin, secretary of Commerce of Washington.
Such actions include the prohibition for Educational Groups to travel to Cuba, one of the categories that allowed Americans to visit the Caribbean Island, and the elimination of trips for recreational boats, passengers and private aircrafts, among which cruise ships are classified.
With this new scenario, Washington sought to reverse the progress that had been made with the administration of Barack Obama, taking relations between the two countries to the lowest level never seen before.
The Trump administration excused the enforcement of these measures with the arguments that Cuba continues supporting countries that are adversaries of the United States, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua; and also to prevent US dollars from reaching by hand of the island’s military and intelligence services. This scenario was immediately supported by the extreme right groups of Florida headed by Senator Marcos Rubio, openly declared opposites to the Cuban regime.
However, the biggest loser with these new measures is the American people and the US cruises companies that have been affected with millionaire losses.
Between 2017 and 2019, these cruise companies estimated to obtain with the operations to Cuba over 761 million dollars, while the Island would only receive 80 million and the government 21 million, since an important part of these revenues remained in the hands of the non-state sector that provides extra-hotel services, much of them requested by the cruise passengers that touched the Cuban ports.
According to data from Cuba Trade Magazine, between 2015 and 2017 after opening the Cuba destination to the cruise ships, American trips to the Caribbean increased by 6.3 percent (14.3 million), half of the visitors to the region, while the Total number of tourists who traveled to the Caribbean grew up by 1 million in 2016, which reveal the marked interest in the Cuban market.
Another CLIA report shows that in 2018, cruise trips to the Caribbean accounted for 34.4 percent of the total, with an annual growth of 7%, or 11.3 million of more cruise passengers. Adam Goldstein, president of the CLIA said “we are disappointed that the cruise ships no longer operate in Cuba”
Just setting a figure, in 2018 about 584 thousand American cruise passengers traveled to Cuba, so if they would to get to maintain this level, US cruise agencies could have earned about $ 336 million. Data from the Ministry of Tourism of Cuba indicate that 257,500 Americans traveled to Cuba in the first four months of the year 2019, 55 percent of them in cruise ships.
Cruise packages to Cuba are around 1,000 and 8,000 USD, so the losses on reservations are estimated in 3 thousand 200 million dollars.
In August 2018, Havana City was selected by the Cruise Critic site as the best destination and port in the western Caribbean, a criterion based on the opinion of cruise passengers, mainly North Americans.
Trump administration spokesmen have said their purpose is to affect the Cuban government, but not the non-state sector. In recent statements by Senator Marcos Rubio on his Twitter account (@ MarcoRubioCuba1), he said that these new regulations of the United States government “do not seek to harm the self-employed, because they want independent businesses to prosper and that the new policy towards the island does not it will damage family trips”.
All the infrastructure that moved around the cruises was basically by non-state businesses, many private restaurants commonly known as “palates” received the cruise passengers who came to taste the typical Cuban food, the old rental cars, which are only seen in Cuba, were much requested by these tourists, as well as car rides, tours to the historic center of Havana and sight-seen tours to other parts of the country, often in private rental cars with private translators.
Reinato Martínez, a tour guide on the island, said that these measures are “a fatal blow” ….” It is a pity that the advances that had been achieved have diminished in this way” and added that he fears “a strong economic crisis for the whole family and the Cubans. “
For his part, the taxi driver Gustavo Pinto said that “the main tourist hub of cruise ships is Cuba.”
Genaro Rodríguez, a craftsman in Old Havana, told the press that “sales have fallen by 80 percent and the lack of tourism is noted due to the impact of cruise ships.” We cannot ignore that this new measure of Trump has affected the tourism industry of Cuba, a country that has many attractions and much in demand by the Americans who have been limited to travel to the island since the US blockade was put into force and where legally they are not allowed to do tourism, but the main loser are the American cruise companies.
Source: Periódico Digital Centroamericano y del Caribe
