ALERT: Cuba- White House Restricts Travel; ASTA Responds (November 8, 2017)
November 8, 2017
Today, the Trump administration tightened travel restrictions to Cuba. Effective Thursday, American tourists will no longer be able to travel to Cuba on individual people-to-people exchange programs. They must travel now with a sponsoring organization or educational program. Americans are also restricted from access to hotels, stores and other businesses tied to the Cuban military. The new regulations would not affect existing transactions.
ASTA issued a statement calling on policymakers to enact legislation to do away with the statutory Cuba travel ban.
The Washington Post reported:
The Trump administration announced tight new restrictions Wednesday on American travel and trade with Cuba, implementing policy changes President Trump announced five months ago to reverse Obama administration normalization with the Communist-ruled island.
Under the new rules, most individual visits to Cuba will no longer be allowed, and U.S. citizens will again have to travel as part of groups licensed by the Treasury Department for specific purposes, accompanied by a group representative. Americans also will be barred from staying at a long list of hotels, and from patronizing restaurants, stores and other enterprises that the State Department has determined are owned by or benefit members of the Cuban government, specifically its security services.
The new rules “are intended to steer economic activities away from the Cuban military, intelligence and security services . . . and encourage the government to move toward greater economic freedom” for the Cuban people, said a senior administration official, one of several authorized by the White House to brief reporters on the changes on the condition of anonymity.
[Five things you need to know about Trump’s Cuba policy]
Commercial relations with Cuba are to be similarly restricted to prevent any exchanges with the 180 entities on the State Department’s list.
Administration officials said the new regulations, which will take effect Thursday, would not affect certain existing transactions. For visitors, that means anyone who has “completed at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodations) prior to” publication of the new regulations in the Federal Register on Thursday.
For businesses, all those who have signed contracts before publication may proceed with them, officials said. That presumably would include both John Deere and Caterpillar, both of which reportedly signed recent distribution contacts with Cuba.
The most significant change under the new regulations is the elimination of the individual “people-to-people” category of educational travel. As before the Obama opening, visitors to Cuba will again have to travel in licensed groups. They are additionally prohibited from staying at many hotels throughout the country that the State Department has said are connected to various holding companies said to be all or partly owned by the security services.
Instead, the new regulations encourage Americans to stay in rooms rented by private citizens, and to eat in private restaurants that have been allowed for a number of years as part of a growing Cuban private sector.
President Barack Obama restored diplomatic ties with Havana in 2015 and issued regulatory changes that allowed increased commercial relations and expanded travel to Cuba.
The ASTA statement says:
Alexandria, VA, November 8, 2017 – Eben Peck, Executive Vice President, Advocacy at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), issues the following statement in response to the newly issued regulations governing trade and travel between the U.S. and Cuba: “We believe in the fundamental principle of travel freedom, and that our government should not be in the business of telling Americans where to travel or not to travel. The American people are the best ambassadors of U.S. values abroad, and should be allowed to freely promulgate those values and travel to any destination they wish without restriction from their own government. “Rather than shutting the door to this market 90 miles off our shores, we call on policymakers to enact legislation to do away with the statutory Cuba travel ban once and for all. While helping our members and their clients comply with the rules announced today, we will continue to advocate toward Cuba travel freedom and look forward to the day it becomes reality. “While these regulations move us in the opposite direction of the full opening of the Cuba market ASTA has long pushed for, they did incorporate several items we did push for and, perhaps most importantly, the rules of the road are now set. We are confident that our cruise and tour partners and other travel industry stakeholders will adjust quickly to the new rules with an eye toward keeping Cuba as viable a destination for U.S. travelers (and travel agents) as possible. ASTA will continue to monitor implementation and respond to member queries as the situation unfolds.”
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