CUBA: Washington Squeezes Where It Hurts – the Tourism Industry

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jun 28 2004 (IPS) - The U.S. administration’s new measures to stiffen the four-decade embargo against Cuba, that go into effect on Wednesday, will restrict the visits of Cuban-Americans and could undermine the revenues that the island takes in through its fastest-growing industry: tourism.

The Havana international airport is reaching the end of a busy month of arrivals by hundreds of anxious-looking travellers flying in from the United States to take advantage of the last few days before the implementation of the measures, which will further separate the two countries.

”Instead of the three weeks I wanted to spend with my teenage daughter and my parents, I had to limit my stay to seven days, out of fear of having to pay a fine if I return after Jun. 30,” said Francisco Díaz, who lives in New York, as he was leaving the airport.

The new measures adopted by the administration of President George W. Bush, which form part of a programme to ”hasten the transition to democracy” in Cuba, are expected to have an impact on the around one billion dollars a year in remittances sent home by Cubans living in the United States, who total 1.3 million.

Last year, just over 115,100 Cuban-Americans visited this Caribbean island nation, laden with gifts to ease the burden suffered by their families because of Cuba’s continuing economic woes, and many of them keen on enjoying the country’s beaches and other tourist attractions.

The U.S. government only allows Cubans living in the United States to send their relatives here a maximum of 1,200 dollars a year. Although Bush’s plan does not lower that ceiling, it does contain measures to crack down on ”illegal” transfers of money and consumer goods.

Many Cuban-Americans send their families in Cuba products not available here, such as medicines or home appliances like VCRs.

But the Bush administration said it will step up enforcement and ”sting operations” against ”mules” who carry money or other supplies to Cuba illegally, while baggage limits will also be strictly enforced. In addition, it will limit ”recipients of remittances and gift parcels to immediate family members.”

Further, the amount of money that U.S. citizens, including Cuban-Americans, will be able to spend on food and lodging here will be slashed from 164 to 50 dollars a day.

And starting in July, the members of the Cuban exile community in the United States will be able to visit only immediate family members – spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, or siblings – in Cuba just once every three years.

”I’ll have to see how I can keep helping my family, even if I’m not able to come for a few days to enjoy summer vacation with them,” said Díaz.

Paradoxically, the government of Fidel Castro is in the process of waiving the visa requirement for emigrés who visit Cuba, making it easier to travel here.

The restrictions will also affect non-Cuban U.S. citizens interested in travelling to Cuba, including academics or professionals who up to now have been able to attend activities like international conferences or trade fairs in this country.

Cuban authorities say tourism is one of the areas that Washington is especially targeting.

”The aim is to deal a blow, with all possible force, to tourism, which was once again beginning to show strong growth,” says a May 7 statement by the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party, Havana’s first official reaction to Bush’s announcement of the new U.S. measures a day earlier.

The Cuban government recently complained that the measures proposed by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, set up by the White House last year to further the objective of ”hastening Cuba’s peaceful transition to a representative democracy and a free market economy”, include pressure on third countries aimed at reducing tourism revenues in Cuba.

Earlier this month, business interests in Jamaica pulled out of real estate investments in Cuban resorts, bowing to pressure applied by Washington under the Helms Burton law, which is designed to discourage foreign firms from doing business in Cuba using property that the Cuban government had confiscated from U.S. citizens.

The tourism industry is the fastest-growing sector of the Cuban economy, reporting 12.7 percent growth in the number of visitors and 16 percent growth in revenues last year.

In 2003, Cuba received 1.9 million visitors, who spent 2.1 billion dollars in the country.

Studies carried out by the University of Colorado in Denver and the Brattle Group consulting firm indicate that if the travel ban was lifted, the Cuban tourism industry would see its revenues increase by nearly 576 million dollars in just the first year.

There were signs early this year that new sanctions were coming. On Feb. 9, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said in Miami, Florida – home to the biggest Cuban exile community – that to speed up the transition to democracy in Cuba, ”we must not and cannot have American dollars lining Fidel Castro’s pockets.”

He added that ”since the training and inspection efforts have intensified, at the direction of President Bush, nearly 300 passengers have been denied travel after an examination revealed they did not qualify under any legitimate licence category for travel to Cuba.”

Sources at Cuba’s Tourism Ministry admitted last month that the number of U.S. citizens travelling to Cuba has fallen eight percent since the beginning of the year, due to the greater hurdles put in place by Washington.

U.S. citizens who travel to Cuba without permission face fines of up to 250,000 dollars, and even prison.

Visitors from the United States often fly to Cuba through a third country, and Cuban authorities refrain from stamping their passports on their way in and out.

In 2002, of the 80,000 non-Cuban U.S. citizens who visited the island, only around half had permission from Washington, according to analysts.

A Travel and Leisure magazine survey among its U.S. readers in 2003 found that Cuba was the favourite destination in the Caribbean.

”They say remittances won’t be affected, but by stiffening controls on people who travel here, less money will come from family members living” in the United States, Milagros Sarría, 55, who has a number of relatives living in that country, complained to IPS last month.

”I had my business all set up, as a chauffeur for people arriving from the United States,” said Arturo Gutiérrez, who lives in the Havana neighbourhood of El Vedado. ”Looking at this objectively, things are going to get very difficult,” he added, referring to the economic situation.