Cuban tourism: continuing the discussion

Thirty years ago, in April 1979, Carlos Muñiz Varela was murdered in Puerto Rico. The native-born Cuban was the 26-year-old founder of Viajes Varadero, a travel agency that booked the first flight from the United States to Cuba after over 15 years without. He was one of the group of Cuban exiles that negotiated with the Castro regime directly to achieve that goal, and thus became a target of militant exiles who opposed peaceful contact (“cooperation”) with the island. Four months after that flight brought the first group of Cuban-Americans to visit family in Havana, Muñiz Varela was killed. Following his death, in the 1970s and 1980s twelve Cuba travel agencies in Miami were attacked, and a Cuban plane at JFK in New York was bombed.

Today, Cuban-Americans travel without the fear of reprisal that used to accompany a trip to the island. They have finally recovered their right to fly to the island, the stigma of travel to the Communist island has mostly dissipated, and Cuban-Americans are hopping on flights to Havana in increasing numbers since the ban on family travel was lifted last month. Marazul Charters, a travel agency that books flights from Miami, Florida to the island, responded to increased demand for flights by raising its booking capacity from 369 seats in March to 480 seats in May, and then to 900 seats in June. Marazul’s president estimates that 17-18,000 people will travel through them in May—not to mention the many traveling with the 7 other agencies booking flights to Cuba.

The potential is huge. Flights from the United States carried 85,000 passengers to Cuba last year; already this year passengers have totaled over 40,000.

The next step, of course, is broadening the right to travel to all Americans, not just those with family on the island, but it is difficult to tell when that might happen. The Obama administration has not been forthcoming with such details, frustrating many who are waiting for a subsequent announcement. John McAuliff of the New York-based Fund for Reconciliation and Development hoped the travel ban would be scrapped before Cuba’s 2009 International Tourism Convention, so that a hundred or so U.S. tour operators could attend in Havana. But the agencies were denied licenses to make the trip. Meanwhile, the convention,which ends tomorrow, has touched on the subject of a possible “American Tsunami” that would come from lifting the travel ban, but Cuban officials believe “there is no reason to make it a big deal now.” It could happen in three months, or in three years.

One 94-year-old retired doctor is hoping to press the administration on the issue by traveling illegally to the island from his home in Portland. He left on Sunday for Havana (by way of Vancouver) without a visa, stating publicly before departure, “I want Obama to lift the ban now, not when I’m dead.” His illegal trip is meant to draw attention to the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which was introduced in the Senate in February and would end all restrictions on travel to Cuba. The legislation has been “under review” now for almost three months, without any sign of progress.