|
U.S. companies hope that Obama's olive branch to Cuba yields new business |
|
Articles About Cuba -
News
|
By Doreen Hemlock | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
President Barack Obama's newly unveiled plans to ease U.S. travel and telecom links with Cuba drew widespread attention, but how much that translates into real business remains a question.
A lot depends on how Cuba's communist government reacts to Obama's overtures and how much it opens to Cuban-American visitors and to U.S. travel and telecom companies, business leaders and analysts said.
Companies also want to see the fine print from U.S. agencies on how the new programs will be implemented, since red tape has snarled their Cuba plans before, analysts add.
"Potentially, the news is important for business, but right now, it's abstract," said Jake Colvin, vice president at the National Foreign Trade Council in Washington, D.C., a pro-trade group. "U.S. companies are generally taking a wait-and-see approach."
Changes to rules for U.S. residents visiting family in Cuba illustrate the potential for business and the challenges.
While Obama's plan lets Cuban-Americans visit the island whenever they want and stay as long as they want, many still need to obtain Cuban visas to enter, a process that can take months or longer.
Also, flights to the island are limited, either to direct charters approved from several U.S. cities or commercial flights from other nations. American Airlines and other carriers can't start scheduled U.S-Cuba service without bilateral aviation agreements with the Cuban government -- a move not yet authorized, executives said.
"It is premature to comment on any future service opportunities to Cuba, given that there appear to be no changes to scheduled service rights at this time," Delta Air Lines said in a statement.
If Cuba eases visa approvals and if air service to Cuba increases, Tico Travel of Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? - Click Here. figures it can "easily" expand its authorized U.S. business with Cuba from less than 3,000 clients a year to more than 30,000 yearly. But that requires lots of conditions be met, far beyond White House approval, said co-owner Rob Hodel.
"Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you can do it," Hodel said.
New telecom rules also may prove tough for U.S. business, requiring approvals from Cuban telecom authorities and agreements with Cuban telecom agencies, analysts said.
Cuba now restricts satellite TV and Internet services, so many hookups at homes are illegal and signals pirated. The country lags in cell-phone use, partly because of high charges, often more than 60 cents a minute for local calls.
Cuban authorities may want to expand some services with U.S. telecom companies to generate cash, but they also will also want to keep political control, limiting others and complicating business, said Enrique Lopez, head of AKL Group in Coral Gables.
In addition, many services may be out of the financial reach of Cubans, who earn salaries averaging less than $20 a month.
"Even if Cuban families could pay $30 a month for satellite TV, how would the government control what they have access to?" Lopez asked.
So many questions have U.S. telecom companies cautious about Obama's plan, which still leaves the 47-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba in place.
"We will look at any change in U.S. policy very closely, and should a new market opportunity arise in Cuba, carefully consider our options," DirecTV said in a statement.
John Kavulich, an adviser with the U.S-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York, said Cuba doesn't need U.S. business to survive.
The Caribbean nation of 11.5 million people already does business with many other countries and receives financial help from Venezuela, China and other allies. When Washington connects travel, telecom and other business links to promoting "change" on the island or bypassing the Cuban government, Havana becomes circumspect, often wary of approvals for U.S. business, he said.
"Any change in U.S. policy toward Cuba," Kavulich said, "always results in far more questions than people want to admit.'' |
|
Fidel Castro Holds Talks With US Politicians |
|
Articles About Cuba -
News
|
|
The former Cuban president Fidel Castro yesterday met members of the US Congress in an attempt to improve relations between Cuba and Washington. Castro – who was described as "very healthy" and "very energetic" – asked what he could do to help the US president, Barack Obama, improve bilateral relations. Representative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, said Castro talked with her and two other members of the congressional black caucus for nearly two hours yesterday. The meeting has been seen as a sign that Cuba is willing to discuss better relations between it and the US. "We believe it is time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba," Lee told a news conference in Washington. "Cubans do want dialogue. They do want talks. They do want normal relations." Lee said the group would present its findings to the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, as well as White House and state department officials. The California Democrat Laura Richardson said Castro "looked directly into our eyes" and asked how Cuba could help Obama in his efforts to change the course of US foreign policy. Richardson said she had the impression that the 82-year-old wanted to see improvements in his lifetime, adding that he was "very healthy, very energetic, very clear thinking". The talks came a day after the full delegation of six representatives spent more than four hours in talks with the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, in his first encounter with US officials since he formally replaced his brother nearly 14 months ago. Obama has ordered an assessment of US policy toward the communist nation, and some members of Congress are pushing to lift a ban on Americans visiting the island. Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006. Although he gave up his presidential duties after becoming ill, he remains an influential force. In a column posted on a government website last night, Castro wrote about his meeting with the US representatives, saying Cuban leaders "weren't aggressors, nor did we threaten the United States". "Cuba did not have any alternative but to take the initiative," he said. He applauded the delegation for "the interest and depth with which they expounded on their points of view and the quality of their simple and profound words". Jeffrey Davidow, the White House adviser for this month's Summit of the Americas, which Obama will attend, said the US president had no plans to lift the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba but would soon ease travel and financial restrictions. Bills in both houses of the US Congress would effectively bar any president from prohibiting Americans from travelling to Cuba except in extreme cases such as war. Lee predicted that the measures would be approved, but said they would not spell the end of the embargo. "This would be a wonderful step, allowing American citizens the right to travel to Cuba, but much would follow after that," she added. |
|
|
Articles About Cuba -
News
|
There’s been a lot of talk about Cuba opening up for travel lately and the prospect has travel agents justifiably excited—particularly home-based agents, many of whom focus on Caribbean destinations.
I recently met with Rob Hodel, owner of U.S.-based Tico Travel in Fort Lauderdale with his brother Steve, who has been coordinating travel to Cuba for 10 years now, and says the recent lifting of the three-year restrictions on Cuban-Americans visiting Cuba means more changes are coming.
Hodel said the new rules mean the slate on past trips made by Cuban-Americans has been wiped clean and that, as a result, he expects travel to increase dramatically among that group, as well as others now allowed to travel.
To that end, Hodel’s firm is revamping its website—www.destinationcuba.com—and adding staff, anticipating a dramatic rise in demand for services by Cuban-Americans and others now allowed to travel to Cuba, such as those involved in agricultural sales, another area the U.S. government gave the green light to by the president’s signing of the Omnibus bill in mid-March.
And now, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which would allow U.S. citizens to visit the country, raises many other questions for agents. After our meeting, I received an e-mail from Hodel in which he shared his thoughts:
“In regards to the piece you just ran on the new legislation, it (the legislation) raises as many issues as it attempts to address. The law would remove travel restrictions but NOT the embargo. That means the Treasury Department would still have the financial restrictions regarding Cuba in place.
“Some have asserted that while Americans may be free to travel they would still have to use only authorized Travel Service Providers like Tico Travel, in order to travel to Cuba or be in violation of the embargo. It also does not lift the restrictions on things like credit-card use in Cuba, nor the ability to purchase Cuban products and bring them back to U.S. (cigars would still not legally be permitted to be brought home).
“As a lawyer in a former life and having had 10 years dealing with the Office of Foreign Assets Control I can assure you the regulations coming out of any new legislation will be very strictly constructed to make the ability to travel to Cuba as difficult as possible.
“I am trying to get more of a clear picture of the details of the pending bill, but at first blush it is very vague and broad in its language. It may just be an attempt to push the administration to act first in order to give the individual members of Congress the political coverage to posture while recognizing that the tide has turned and the opening of travel to Cuba is inevitable.”
Other agents piped in with their thoughts on AgentNation, our social networking site for travel agents. Among their thoughts:
• “I think it will be the hot new destination once the change happens. When I've spoken with Canadians who go there, they go on and on about how great the service is at the resorts, and it's not any poorer than anywhere else in the Caribbean. Certainly not any more authoritarian than a lot of countries of the world that we have full rights to visit.”
• “I think people in general are going to be curious about a place so close to the States that has been off limits to them for more than a generation. There will be some who refuse to go due to their principles, politics or fears, but I think there will be an initial boom of tourists that will go strictly to satisfy their curiosity. It will be up to the people of Cuba to keep the tourists coming back. There are many Caribbean destinations with which they will be competing for the return clients—they will have to offer great service, properties and value for the travel dollar to score the return travelers.”
• “I can't wait to see the restrictions lifted on visiting Cuba. I have long been curious about the culture, the food, the people and especially the music of Cuba. As far as communism goes, if that is the reason for the restrictions, that is NOT a valid excuse. After all, we are practically married to China, the ultimate communist country.”
• “I dare to say that, if restrictions are lifted to travel to Cuba, many Caribbean destinations will feel the impact of—for all practical purposes—a brand-new destination, full of suspense of what's to be found after so many years of isolation. Cuba will immediately receive an avalanche of visitors, and I can't wait.”
We'll be watching this story closely going forward, and would love to hear your thoughts on the issue. Join the discussion on Cuba on AgentNation today.
|
|
Poll: Three-quarters favor relations with Cuba |
|
Articles About Cuba -
News
|
|
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Two-thirds of those surveyed say U.S. should lift travel ban on Cuba
Americans banned from traveling to Cuba, although some do from other countries
President Obama has said he is in favor of changing the relationship with Cuba
But some members of Congress are against opening relations
(CNN) -- A new poll shows that two-thirds of Americans surveyed think the U.S. should lift its travel ban on Cuba, and three-quartershink the U.S. should end its five-decade estrangement with the country.
According to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted April 3 to 5, 64 percent of the 1,023 Americans surveyed by telephone thought the U.S. government should allow citizens to travel to Cuba.
And 71 percent of those polled said that the U.S. should reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, while 27 percent opposed such a move.
Both questions had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The Obama administration has signaled that new rules on family travel and remittances to Cuba may be announced before President Obama goes to the Summit of the Americas on April 17.
A group of senators and other supporters unveiled a bill March 31 to lift the 47-year-old travel ban to Cuba.
"I think that we finally reached a new watermark here on this issue," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, one of the bill's sponsors.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, another sponsor of the bill, issued a draft report in February that said it was time to reconsider the economic sanctions. Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Interactive: Learn more about Cuba »
"Republicans as well as Democrats favor reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba," CNN polling director Keating Holland said. "On the issue of lifting travel restrictions, Republicans are evenly divided, while independents and Democrats support the change."
A delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus traveled to Cuba earlier this week to find out if Cuba was interested in resuming relations with the U.S., said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, a member of the delegation.
"We have to remember that every country in Latin America, 15 countries, have normal relations with Cuba," Lee said. "We're the country which is isolated." Watch Lee discuss her visit to Cuba »
Lee said that Cuba has no preconditions on resuming relations.
The trip prompted a pair of Republican congressmen to rip the Black Caucus members for ignoring Cuba's "myriad gross human rights abuses," saying the trip to the island nation ignored the plight of political prisoners under the Castro regime.
Cuban-American members of Congress, regardless of party affiliation, have voiced outrage over the easing of relations.
Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, who was born in Cuba, doesn't want to see changes to the embargo.
"Having tourists on Cuban beaches is not going to achieve democratic change in Cuba," Martinez has said.
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat and Cuban-American, said in a recent speech that the Cuban government is "pure and simple a brutal dictatorship. ... The average Cuban lives on an income of less than a dollar a day."
Obama has said he is in favor of changing the relationship with Cuba. The $410 billion budget Obama signed in March makes it easier for Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. It could also allow the sale of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba.
Three provisions attached to the omnibus spending bill loosened restrictions enacted by former President Bush after he came to office in 2001.
U.S. citizens are allowed to visit Cuba, but must apply for special licenses to do so. Though it is illegal, some citizens travel to a third country like Mexico or Canada and then into Cuba. |
|
Special Articles