Big jump seen in U.S. travel to Cuba in 2010

HAVANA (Reuters) – More than 1,000 travelers from the United States are arriving every day in Cuba on average, most of Cuban origin, making Havana’s long-time foe its second source of visitors after Canada, travel industry and diplomatic sources said Monday.

U.S. charter companies flying to the Communist-ruled island say business has boomed since President Barack Obama’s administration lifted restrictions last year on Cuban-Americans visiting their homeland, and also loosened curbs on academic, religious, cultural and other professional travel.

U.S. citizens are forbidden from traveling to Cuba without their government’s permission under a wide-ranging U.S. trade embargo on the island imposed nearly five decades ago.

“There is a huge increase this year compared with 2009,” said Armando Garcia, president of Marazul Charters, the oldest of a growing number of companies chartering flights to Cuba.

“Through October around 265,000 have traveled. November and December are the peak months, so we expect 330,000 will go to Cuba on direct flights from the United States this year,” Garcia said, speaking in a telephone interview from Miami.

Cuban tourism industry sources said more and more U.S. citizens or Cuba-bound travelers from the United States were also arriving through third countries such as Mexico and the Bahamas to get around the U.S. travel ban, avoid licensing hassles, or simply because it is the less expensive route.

There are no regular scheduled commercial flights between Cuba and the United States which lie less than an hour’s flight apart, separated by the Florida Straits.

“We estimate the total (visitors from the U.S. to Cuba) for the year will be more than 400,000,” a U.S. State Department source said, asking his name not be used due to restrictions on talking with journalists.

HAVANA AIRPORT EXPANSION

Cuba reported 2.4 million tourists arrived in 2009, with Canada the largest provider at close to 915,000, followed by Great Britain at 172,000 and Spain at 129,000.

The Cuban National Statistics Office (http://www.one.cu) reported that Canadian arrivals through October of this year had increased, while there was little change from Great Britain and a significant drop in Spanish tourism.

Cuba reported 52,455 arrivals from the United States in 2009, but those of Cuban origin were included under a wide separate category of “other.” Local tourism officials said 80,000 U.S. citizens came in 2008, including Cuban-Americans.

The official trade union weekly, Trabajadores, ran a front page article Monday on the expansion of the Havana airport terminal that receives U.S. flights, saying it would be completed by this Christmas and double capacity.

Marazul’s Garcia estimated U.S. travel to Cuba would increase another 30 percent in 2011.

Legislation that would have lifted entirely U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba died in Congress this year. Such initiatives will have even less chance of passage when a new Congress convenes in January, following the Republican Party’s success in the November mid-term elections.

Cuban-American Republican members of Congress are fierce and vocal opponents of opening up more U.S. travel to Cuba, saying there should be no relaxation without political change and human rights improvements on the island.

Advocates of more freedom to travel to Cuba hope the Obama administration will at least further loosen remaining restrictions, opening up more so-called ‘people to people’ contact visits that would favor sports, cultural, artistic, academic and religious exchanges.

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Cuba tourism inches up despite global economy

HAVANA  AP– Cuba says tourism on the island has inched up during the first nine months of 2010, with both revenue and the number of visitors climbing despite global economic weakness.

Revenue through September was $1.3 billion, up 3.5 percent from the $1.26 billion reported over the same period last year. The number of tourists also increased during the period, up about 50,000 to 1.89 million through September.

Canada remains the country that sends most tourists to the island — with 733,000 in the first nine months of 2010 — followed by Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany. U.S. tourists are effectively barred from coming to Cuba, and Washington has maintained a 48-year trade embargo on the island.

Tourism and nickel production are Cuba’s main sources of income. The country is in the midst of a deep economic downturn. Communist leaders are in the process of revamping the economy, injecting a measure of free market capitalism into the state-dominated system.

www.particularcuba.com

Spanish Travel Agents Meet in Cuba

Oct 24 (Prensa Latina) Inspired by the growing spiral of Cuban tourism, the Spanish National Travel Agents Association (AEDAVE) announced on Sunday that it would hold its 21st congress in several Cuban cities.

The event will be held from October 26 to November 1 in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo and the Guardalavaca beach resort in Holguin, all in eastern Cuba, according to a press release from the Cuban Tourism Ministry.

The note said that more than 150 travel agents, guests and personalities from the Spanish tourism market had confirmed their attendance at the congress, which includes professional seminars on October 27 at the Santiago de Cuba Melia Hotel.

The top leaders of AEDAVE will attend, as will personalities of the world of tourism, and participants will learn directly about the potential of eastern Cuba as a tourist destination.

It is the second time Cuba will host an AEDAVE congress, taking into account the importance of the Spanish market for the development of the Cuban tourism industry, the Tourism Ministry press release said.

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U.S. approvals of Cuba travel providers make big jump

Miamiherald.com:

The U.S. agency that enforces Cuba sanctions approved 42 new travel and other service providers this year, compared to none in 2009, in what government officials described as a push sparked by changes in the Obama administration policy and the bureaucracy.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also updated its list of “authorized providers of air, travel and remittance forwarding services to Cuba” four times this year, compared to twice in 2009 and just once in 2008.

The increases were driven both by President Barack Obama’s change in policy to allow more U.S. travel to Cuba and OFAC’s effort to clear up a backlog of applications for new licenses that had been pending for several months, said one knowledgeable U.S. official.

Obama lifted virtually all restrictions on Cuban Americans’ travel to the island last year, overturning a Bush administration ruling that had limited their trips to once every three years.

“It’s a little bit of both, policy and bureaucracy,” said the official, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about the changes. “The people at OFAC had been spending a lot of time [monitoring] the family travel” under the previous administration.

“Not only is this good for people who have been waiting for years to open their businesses, but it allows the U.S. government to address more pressing matters that affect the entire nation,” said Vivian Mannerud, president of the Miami-based Airline Brokers Co.

OFAC reports showed the agency issued 11 “new approvals” on March 8, March 24 and March 31, two on April 19 and five on its latest update of the list, issued May 14, which now lists 224 companies licensed to offer travel and remittance services to Cuba.

No new authorizations were reported in the OFAC updates issued in 2009, though there were dozens of changes to existing licenses, such as new branches and different addresses.

The increase in new approvals is not linked to the recent hike in U.S. travel to Cuba — more than 20,000 people each month now compared to less than 9,000 before Obama eased the family travel restrictions — according to two travel industry experts.

There are already enough licensed service providers to handle the increased flow, and maybe too many, said Pedro Gonzalez Munné, president of Cuba Promotions in Miami.

Other Cuban travel industry experts noted that most of the companies authorized this year have been in the Cuba travel business for several months, usually operating in conjunction with already licensed companies.

OFAC requires new applicants for licenses to have fully established companies — including office space and telephones — but bars them from conducting Cuba business until their applications are approved months down the road, one official noted.

“That’s very unreasonable and unfair,” the official added, asking for anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue. “Did OFAC’s delays force some people to do roundabout work? Maybe.”

www.particularcuba.com – Cuba travel agency

Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels

March 26 (Bloomberg) — Cuba’s hotels could manage a sudden influx of 1 million American tourists if the U.S. Congress lifts its 47-year ban on travel to the Communist island, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said.

Additionally, the Caribbean nation is set to expand its capacity of about 50,000 rooms, with groundbreaking scheduled for at least nine hotels in 2010, Marrero said. About 200,000 rooms may be added in the “medium to long-term,” he said. Cuba is also seeking investment partners for 10 golf courses and luxury hotels aimed at Americans, according to a ministry official.

“I’m convinced that today, with the available capacity, we could be receiving the American tourists without any problem,” Marrero said in an interview yesterday in Cancun, Mexico where he was attending a conference of 40 American and Cuban tourist industry representatives.

The tourism industry meeting comes as the U.S. Congress considers a law that would lift the ban on travel to Cuba. Senator Byron Dorgan, one of 38 co-sponsors of the bill, said he has 60 votes lined up to win passage of the measure this summer. Similar legislation introduced in the House has 178 co-sponsors and needs 218 votes to pass if all 435 members vote.

“This is a 50 year-old failed policy,” Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, told the meeting yesterday in a phone call from Washington. “Punishing Americans by restricting their right to travel just makes no sense at all.”

‘New Era’

President Barack Obama said March 24 that he’s seeking a “new era” in relations with Cuba even as he denounced “deeply disturbing” human rights violations by its government. He did not say where he stands on lifting the travel ban.

Obama last year ended restrictions on Cuban-Americans traveling to Cuba and transferring money to relatives back home. The U.S. State Department has also held talks in Havana with Cuban officials about restoring mail service and cooperation on migration issues.

Tourism to Cuba increased 3.5 percent amid the global financial crisis to 2.4 million visitors last year, with 900,000 visitors from Canada leading the way, Jose Manuel Bisbe, commercial director for the Tourism Ministry, said in an interview this week in Havana.

Bisbe expects foreign arrivals to grow by a similar amount this year. If the U.S. travel ban is lifted, hotels won’t be overburdened because Americans will visit year-round and face capacity problems only during the winter high season when occupancy reaches 85 percent, he said.

www.cubaluxuryrent.com

‘Forbidden City’

“Havana has been the forbidden city for so long that it will be a boom destination even in the low season,” said Bisbe, who estimates Cuba will add another 10,000 hotel rooms in the next two or three years.

Daniel Garcia, who has sold tourists used books in Old Havana since 1994, said more Americans would be good for business.

“The gringos can’t help but spend their money,” Garcia, 43, said at his stand in front of the neo-classical building that housed the U.S. Embassy before Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. “They are the easiest tourists to sell to. They never ask for discounts.”

Marrero said the government can’t finance development of tourist infrastructure on its own so it’s scouting for foreign partners such as Majorca, Spain-based Sol Melia SA, which already manages 24 hotels on the Communist island.

“The Cubans have provided us with a fairly complete picture of their tourism product and future opportunities for U.S. businesses to work in this market,” Lisa Simon, president of the Lexington, Kentucky-based National Tour Association, said in an e-mailed statement. “We look forward to a follow up conference next year in Cuba, should the legislation pending in Congress be approved.”

www.cubaluxuryrent.com – Luxury villa for rent in Havana, Cuba

Cuba turns its back on foreign travel agencies in Cuba concerning Cuban Americans

TheCubaBlog:  Ever so quietly the Cuban government began a campaign to lock foreign travel agencies registered inside and outside Cuba out of the lucrative Cuban American travel market. From early November agencies reported abruptly canceled services for clients arriving in Havana´s terminal 2. Initially the motive was that their receptive agents in Cuba, the likes of CubaTUR, Cubanacan or Ecotur could not provide services in terminal 2 anymore and thus all bookings were cancelled. Some enterprising agents quickly began confirming services for Cuban Americans in terminal 3 and advising their clients to simply take the short jaunt between the two airports by taxi or on foot. This scheme, apparently not considered by the Cuban authorities, was quickly scuttled when a later “orientation” was transmitted by Ministry of tourism officials that “no services sold by a foreign agency would be honored if the tourist holds a U.S passport”. A UK agency owner based in Old Havana since 1999 said “this is highly ironic; many of us who have been here for years trying to make ends meet assisting the Cuban tourism ministry in increasing numbers of individual tourism (more difficult to promote than the mass package deals sold from Canada and Europe) were waiting in anticipation of increased sales from the newly relaxed laws on Cuban American travel by the Obama administration and now we´ve been shut out”

It is thought that the bigger picture is that, in fact, the Cuban government wants the Cuban American market for themselves and, by shutting out travel companies from making bookings or pre-reserving services, Cuban Americans would be forced to pay in Cash (credit cards or wire transfers from US banks are banned from use in Cuba) in Cuba and thus directly into government coffers.

This is yet another sign that the Cuban government holds little if any regard for the companies and agencies that have assisted the island to slowly increase tourism numbers from the low 100´s of thousand in the early 90´s to today’s 2+ million and that, at any opportunity, they´ll restrict sales in sectors to shut out collaborators in favor of direct income.

This latest move by the government is being watched closely by Canada´s Transat, one of Canada´s largest operators, who package holidays for over 200,000 Canadian’s each year to Cuba. One person who works for the company but requested not to be named said: “we´re watching their moves on this issue, we´ve already seen that they are promoting direct hotel bookings and car rental services on their Cuba.cu government webpage and, at the beginning of the year, some Cuban run hotels from Cubanacan were publicizing a direct reservation portal for their hotel rooms to our travelers. The issue of governments trying to set up and run their own travel businesses to shut out major operators is a rather Taboo subject in the industry and, is not taken lightly. Cuba needs to understand that the Caribbean is a big place”

It remains to be seen if tourism officials will reverse this action or whether it’s a taste of things to come. It is already known that in the late 90´s, the government toyed with the idea of setting up a proprietary reservation network but quickly cancelled the venture when international operators began to question them on the issue.

Could they now think it’s time?

www.particularcuba.com – Travel to Cuba

U.S. Travel to Cuba May Open up

Since the 1960s, by US law, they have been off limits to American citizens.

But, on Capitol Hill this week — debate over whether to lift the travel ban to the Communist-ruled island.

Democratic Congressman Howard Berman is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

[Congressman Howard Berman, Democrat, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman]:

“Lifting the travel ban will benefit both U.S. and Cuban citizens. We need to let Americans be beacons of hope, they will bring freedom with them, let thousands of American visitors chip away at the Castro information monopoly with thousands of small cuts”

The United States has restricted trade with Cuba in what started as a Cold War policy to isolate former Cuban President Fidel Castro. U.S. President Barack Obama has said he wants to “recast” ties with Havana and has tried to take steps to ease the embargo.

Some Congressional Republicans argue sending U.S. tourists’ dollars to Cuba would only finance the regime.

Republican Congressman Dan Burton.

[Dan Burton, Republican Congressman]:

“We shouldn’t send any money down there, not a dime, except maybe for humanitarian purposes, until this regime is removed, they need democracy in Cuba.”

The debate came a day after Human Rights Watch released a report saying current President Raul Castro was crushing dissent like his brother Fidel.

Late Thursday, remarks by Obama appeared on the blog of dissident Cuban Yoani Sanchez.

Asked if he would be willing to travel to Cuba, Obama said he would never rule out a course of action that could advance the interests of the U.S. and the cause of freedom for the Cuban people.

www.cubaluxuryrent.com – Cuba vacation rental

Bills to open U.S.-Cuba travel pick up steam — but face uncertain future

El Nuevo Herald:

Bills in Congress to allow all travel to Cuba are increasingly drawing support among U.S. lawmakers and the public — but they still face an uncertain future.

WASHINGTON — A powerful campaign to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba is rumbling through Congress, with both backers and opponents predicting eventual victory and a Cuban-American Senator holding a key vote.

Approval of the measures would have a profound impact on U.S.-Cuba relations, unleashing an estimated one million American tourists to visit the island and undermining White House control of policy toward Havana.

“There would be an explosion of contacts between Americans and Cubans . . . that would almost overshadow what the two governments are doing,” said Phil Peters, a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute think thank in suburban Washington.

Proponents say the measures still have not received active support from the White House and the Democratic leadership in both chambers.

Cuban officials have told recent U.S. visitors that while President Barack Obama’s policy changes so far have been too timid to require a Havana reply, ending the U.S. travel ban would be significant enough to require some sort of Havana concession.

Even opponents of the free-travel bills in the House and Senate admit the campaign for approval is powerful. “I have never seen a stronger effort,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy political action committee.

Backing the change has been the U.S. travel industry — Orbitz says it has 100,000 signatures on a petition — and dozens of newspaper editorials, large agricultural companies, former Secretary of State George Shultz, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and groups that traditionally oppose U.S. sanctions on the island.

“Our goals should be to get rid of the travel ban in the next six months,” Richardson said Friday during a speech to the National Democratic Network in Washington. “This is a step in the right direction,” Shultz declared last month.

Polls show 60-70 percent of all Americans favor lifting the travel restrictions, and one House bill championed by Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt has gathered 180 sponsors — 38 short of the 218 votes required for passage.

Obama ended all restrictions on Cuban-Americans’ travel to the island on Sept. 3. But other U.S. citizens and residents can travel only under special permits for groups such as churches, academics and business — not for tourism. That was allowed, however, from 1977 to 1982 under former President Jimmy Carter’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba.

Most of the public attention has been focused on the House bill backed by Delahunt and Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif. Farr, noting that U.S agricultural sales to Cuba are allowed but not tourism, has repeated several variations of the line that “We can send American potatoes to Cuba, but not American people.”

But a lesser-known version has a better chance of passing because it also eases restrictions on U.S. agricultural and medical sales to Cuba, in hopes of gathering support from those lobbies, said a Senate Republican staffer monitoring the progress of the travel bills.

The main Senate version of the measure — with 25 co-sponsors from both parties at last count — is being championed by Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Michael Enzi, R-Wyo. and Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

But backers of the changes say the bills have not moved forward through the congressional maze so far because of the lack of active support from the Obama administration and the Democratic leadership in both chambers.

“The Obama people are showing timidity. They are sitting on their hands,” said a Senate aide whose Democratic boss favors lifting all travel restrictions. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.

Administration officials say lifting all travel restrictions would be too drastic and perhaps chaotic, and the the president prefers a more measured warming of relations. They stop short of saying whether Obama would sign or veto the bill if passed by Congress.

“At the end of the day this is a leadership issue,” said the Senate Republican aide, who also asked for anonymity. “Do the Democrats have the will to bring this up [for a vote] with all the other issues — healthcare, Afghanistan, etc.”

Most of Washington’s Cuba watchers agree the full Congress is probably going to pass some bills easing Cuba sanctions, most likely one re-defining the requirement that Havana pay “cash in advance” for U.S. food purchases. The change would allow Cuba to pay when the shipments reach Havana, not before they leave U.S. ports as now required.

But the future of the “Free Travel to Cuba” initiatives is far more uncertain, with most of those monitoring the struggle saying that some version will likely pass the House, but all will almost certainly die in the Senate.

Delahunt “has a pretty impressive list of sponsors. That bill looks good in the House,” said a former Bush administration Cuba expert. “Delahunt will pass the House,” added an Obama administration official. Both asked for anonymity so they could speak frankly about the topic.

But most supporters as well as opponents say the travel measures are unlikely to pass the Senate, where the Democrats have a smaller majority and the bills face stiff opposition from Bob Menendez, a powerful Cuban American Democrat from New Jersey and Florida’s Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and George LeMieux, a Republican.

Menendez and Nelson have strongly opposed easing the ban on U.S. tourism. LeMieux, who replaced Sen. Mel Martinez, is expected to also oppose easing the travel restrictions.

“This is a battle of perceptions. The pro-travel groups are claiming they will win, in the hope of creating the sense of movement and victory,” said Claver-Carone. “But in the end, the Senate will be tough, if not impossible.”

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Cuba part of the Thomson Cruises itineraries in 2010-2011

cruisecritic.com: British line Thomson Cruises is shaking things up in winter 2010-2011 with a series of new 14-night Caribbean itineraries — including Thomson’s first-ever calls in Havana, Cuba. The cruises will be operated by the new 1,506-passenger, 54,000-tonne Thomson Dream, which will join the fleet in April 2010.

British line Thomson Cruises is shaking things up in winter 2010-2011 with a series of new 14-night Caribbean itineraries — including Thomson’s first-ever calls in Havana, Cuba. The cruises will be operated by the new 1,506-passenger, 54,000-tonne Thomson Dream, which will join the fleet in April 2010.

Havana is an exciting choice because not many cruise lines visit the Cuban city, due to U.S. restrictions on travel there. Even U.K.-based Fred. Olsen has only four cruises calling in Havana in 2010; German line Hapag-Lloyd offers just a couple of calls in Cuba, as well. However, when Thomson Dream sails its new two-week cruises from December 2010 to March 2011, it will not only offer a full season of Cuban visits but also will feature two or three days in Havana on each itinerary.

There are three different types of itineraries from which to choose — Caribbean Experience, Cuban Adventure and Classic Caribbean. What’s unusual is that the ship will actually sail a repeating, 21-night route that will be divided into 14-night segments. That means passengers will debark, and new passengers will board halfway through your cruise. Also, because each 14-night segment is a one-way sailing, Thomson will not offer a fly-cruise option. (There is no option to sail three weeks roundtrip from any of the departure points, as many ports of call are repeated from segment to segment.)

About Thomson Cruises:

As the cruise division of Britain’s largest travel agency and tour operator, Thomson Cruises occupies a unique place in the British cruise market. Founded in 1965, Thomson soon established a dominant position in the vast British inclusive-tour market, with its own travel agencies, airlines and more. In the company’s first foray into the cruise market in 1973, Thomson chartered two former ocean liners from Greek owners but by 1976 had failed to capture an audience, like so many other budget cruise lines of the 1970′s era. But in 1995, it restarted cruise operations by chartering a small ship, The Sapphire, from Cypris-based Louis Cruise Lines. Thomson Cruises soon chartered a variety of other ships, including Island Breeze from the now-defunct Premier Cruises, The Topaz from former Premier executive Paris Katsoufis, and another Louis ship, The Emerald, which remains in the fleet today.

Thomson aimed to have an effect on the British market much like Carnival did in the U.S. — that is, to move cruising from a niche market to the very mainstream of British tourism. Thomson had already made the package holiday hugely popular in the U.K., and wanted to do the same for cruising. Despite its aging ships, Thomson had several elements that lured an ever-increasing number of Britons to cruise for the first time — name recognition, a large presence of its travel agencies across Britain and attractive fares.

In 2008, Royal Caribbean sold its stake in another U.K. line, Island Cruises, to Thomson Cruises’ parent company, TUI Travel. This meant that Island Star left the fleet in March 2009 to join Royal Caribbean’s Spanish brand, Pullmantur, while Island Escape joined the Thomson fleet in spring 2009 to continue offering informal cruises to the U.K. market.

From its beginnings as a budget cruise operator in the 1990′s, Thomson has progressively improved its product and become more mainstream in the cruise industry by improving its ships, amenities and service while also branching out to a wider range of itineraries.

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Future looks bright for Cuba’s Varadero Beach

USA Today:

VARADERO BEACH, Cuba — This 13-mile line of mainly all-inclusive resorts and dazzling stretches of white sand is a well-known budget destination for Canadians and Europeans. And, if travel regulations ever change, hoteliers are hoping for a wave of Americans.

The resort complexes on a skinny peninsula about 90 miles east of Havana are similar to those in Mexico’s Cancun/Riviera Maya area and the Dominican Republic’s Punta Cana, though generally less lavish. Varadero —Cuba’s No. 1 beach destination — has more than four dozen lodgings and more than 17,000 rooms. The sea and sports are the lure, not genuine Cuban culture.

Varadero - www.ParticularCuba.com

Developers planning new resorts are “getting ready for the U.S. market,” says Toronto-based hotel consultant Charles Suddaby. “The hotel capacity is not there yet … but I think Cuba can be a powerful force (among American vacationers) in the Caribbean.”

Cuba already is No. 2 in foreign air arrivals, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization: 2.3 million in 2008, behind the Dominican Republic’s nearly 4 million.

Canadians are the No. 1 single-country market for Varadero, but the much-closer USA, with masses of sun seekers, is viewed as a natural tourist source. Varadero has an airport, golf and is a quick flight from Miami.

“There’s overwhelming interest,” in Varadero and other Cuban areas, says Scott Berman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, a top U.S. Cuba hotel analyst. “It’s a question of readiness” to handle what Cuban officials and hotel analysts say could be 1 million to 2 million Americans the first year of a lifted embargo.

Some of Varadero’s resorts have taken a beating in reviews on TripAdvisor.com for outdated rooms, so-so food and lackadaisical service. But its grander all-inclusives, such as the 490-room Meliá Varadero and the Blau Varadero Hotel, are on a drive to improve. They’re similar to other Caribbean all-inclusives and could appeal to Americans.

The Meliá Varadero, Cuba-owned and managed by Spain’s powerful Meliá chain, features a grand atrium, salsa lessons by the pool, nightly shows, a bar pianist playing the theme from LoveStory in addition to Besame Mucho, a fine-dining restaurant with string quartet and rooms with satellite TV typical of three- to four-star beach accommodation in the USA. You can stay for $120 a person a day this time of year — meals, activities and all-you-can-drink included. The food, mainly buffet fare, still could use upgrading, though.

Out on the beach, Cuban Rodolfo Carballosa, 32, and Italian bride Maila Maceratesi, 26, proclaim their bliss with their names and wedding date written in the sand. They met when she visited a resort where he waited on her. And he hopes for the day when U.S. tourists can freely sit at his tables, too.

Americans “want to change our government,” he says as the couple lunches on roast chicken and Cuban Buccaneer beer.

“Respect me, and I will respect you. If you want to be my friend, you don’t say, ‘You have to do this.’ You come here, and you will see peace. Maybe one day the president of the USA will change things.”

www.particularcuba.com – Hotel booking in Varadero