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CUBA: Forbidden Fruit of the Caribbean Lures US Visitors
By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA (IPS) - Although travel to Cuba is tightly restricted for United States citizens, in practice tens of thousands visit that Caribbean island nation every year without permission, travelling through third countries, while local authorities here oblige by not stamping their passports.
Tourists from the US prefer the hotels of Old Havana, night clubs offering good jazz and the loneliest beaches.
Cuba has many things to offer US tourists its proximity to the United States, some of the best beaches in the Caribbean, cities dating back to the colonial era, the warm hospitality of its people and a culture unique in Latin America.
In the historic centre of the Cuban capital, visitors from the United States stay at the Sevilla, Plaza, Santa Isabel and Florida hotels. Or they can visit the room in Ambos Mundos where Ernest Hemingway wrote his novel ''The Old Man and the Sea'', and frequent the bars haunted by the legendary writer.
Even if visits by Cuban-Americans are not counted, the United States is one of the 10 top sources of tourists to Cuba, despite the nearly 40-year-old blockade against this Caribbean nation and the restrictions on travel here.
''Cuban authorities are very considerate,'' said a 62-year-old US citizen who travelled here, accompanied by his son, through a third country. ''When I return, there will be nothing in my documents that proves that I was here, nor will I have to account for how much money I spent.
''Ten years ago it would not even have crossed my mind to break the law,'' he adds. ''But times have changed, and I have the right to travel where I want, and that's what I'm doing. I came here when I was young, and I wanted to come back with my son.''
To enter Cuba, he needed a valid passport and a 30-day visa stamped on a tourist card, renewable once.
But in the United States, he faces the risk of paying thousands of dollars in fines and spending up to 10 years in jail for visiting Cuba and spending money there without authorisation.
Nevertheless, sources at the Cuban ministry of Economy and Planning estimate that more than 65,000 US nationals travelled to Cuba last year, including roughly 2,800 members of the business community interested in ensuring themselves a spot in the Cuban market in case the embargo is lifted.
In addition, an estimated 124,000 first, second and third generation Cuban-Americans visited the island last year, according to data available at the website of the New York-based US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
Most of the visiting Cuban exiles or their descendants apparently used their right to make one visit a year to their country of origin for purposes of ''humanitarian need,'' while 20,000 came without authorisation or visited more than once.
But reports cited by the Miami daily 'El Nuevo Herald' put that figure at 150,000, 28,000 of whom visited without permission from the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Last year, Cuba recorded more than 1.6 million arrivals, 276,000 of them from Canada, 182,000 from Germany and 161,000 from Italy.
''Coming to Havana is very easy,'' said a Cuban-American who has been living in the United States for 12 years, when asked how she was able to do it twice this year - once to meet a newborn nephew and another to take a vacation on the beach.
''Although I'm a US citizen, I am required to have a Cuban passport,'' she said. ''So I use my US passport to enter and leave the United States and the third party country, while using my Cuban passport for the rest'' of the journey.
According to the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a not-for- profit institution founded in 1992, unauthorised visits to the island increased at an annual rate of between 19 and 21 percent in the past five years, while authorised visits rose by 9 to 11 percent.
All of this despite stern-sounding warnings from Washington.
Tico Travel, a travel service provider that operates with authorisation by the Department of the Treasury's OFAC, warns on its website that ''under current regulations travel to Cuba is severely restricted.
''United States citizens and any person in the United States is subject to these restrictions, regardless of citizenship. Under these restrictions, spending money relating to Cuban travel is prohibited unless the traveller is licensed,'' it states.
The US Department of State consular service, meanwhile, warns prospective travellers that ''medical care does not meet US standards'' and that ''unattended packages or bags in public areas'' could be bombs.
Furthermore, the consular service adds, ''the waters around Cuba can be dangerous to navigate'', ''there have been...reports of an increase in crime against foreigners and Cubans'', and ''persons violating Cuban laws, even unknowingly, may be expelled, arrested or imprisoned.''
Other websites, however, present a radically different view of Cuba. USA Cuba Travel, a Canadian travel agency with 10 years of experience organising tours to Cuba, offers US citizens ''the easiest and safest way'' to reach the island from Canada, Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
The agency states that although there are some pickpockets, ''Cuba is a very safe country. You can walk around at night in tourist areas without having to worry. Police officers are posted at every street corner to ensure tourist security and they will never give you any trouble.''
It adds that ''there are no major health risks in Cuba for travelers'', ''in all major hotels, doctors are on duty 24 hours a day'' and ''one Havana hospital is entirely reserved for foreigners.''
''American citizens are welcome in Cuba, and you will never have trouble because of your country of origin,'' the agency stresses.
Another Canadian agency, Cuba Cruise Corporation, announced a Nassau-Havana cruise line to begin operating in November, which according to its president, Sam Blyth, will allow US tourists to visit the country legally.
The first ocean route running from the United States to Cuba was set up by the company Ward Line in 1840. In the late 19th Century, steamers provided passenger services from New York, Baltimore, Charleston, Philadelphia and New Orleans.
In his book ''Cuba and Tourism'', researcher Evaristo Villalba points out that Prohibition of liquor sales in the United States from 1920 to 1935 gave an enormous boost to tourism flows to Cuba, known at the time as a paradise of rum, sex and gambling.
From July 1956 to August 1957, one single shipping company transported 2,600 tourist cars on its three weekly trips between Key West, Florida and Havana. There were also daily flights to the island from 12 US cities. The flow of US tourists peaked in 1957 with 236,217 arrivals, who accounted for nearly 87 percent of all visitors. But in 1960, a year after the Cuban revolution, the figure had dropped to 61,098, and from there dwindled to nothing.
But times have indeed changed. Cuba aims to draw almost two million tourists this year, and the tourism ministry predicts five to seven million arrivals by the year 2010. But if the US embargo is lifted, that figure will stand closer to 12 million.
The World Tourism Organisation estimates that in the Caribbean, the proportion of total arrivals by US travellers dropped from 53 percent in 1991 to 48 percent in 1998, while the proportion represented by visitors from Canada, Spain, France and Italy climbed from 11 to 18 percent.
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