Improved relations see US-Cuban tourism and hospitality blossom
President Obama’s efforts to thaw US-Cuban relations have paid off, particularly for the tourism and hospitality industries. Sadly, President-elect Trump is already threatening to reverse some of the good work
Prior to his passing, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl worked with President Barack Obama to bring Cuba and the US much closer, facilitating trade and travel
Conciliatory efforts have helped the Obama administration make impressive headway in improving relations between Cuba and the US, including internet access and direct phone lines in the former, and the reintroduction of cigar imports for the latter. A further historic moment took place on November 28, when a commercial American Airlines flight landed at Cuba’s José Martí International Airport for the first time in over half a century.
For the tourism industry, this was a much-celebrated achievement, as trade restrictions have long prevented Cuban businesses from generating much revenue from US companies. Along with the wider push to increase commercial flights to the island, US firm Starwood Hotels & Resorts has agreed a management contract with a Cuban hotel, while Reuters confirmed that Carnival Corp has begun cruises to the island.
US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted a crushing blow to relations between the two states
American Airlines trumped other US carriers in 2015, operating over 1,200 charter flights to Cuba. In discussing the opening of commercial flights to the country John Kavulich, President of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, stated: “The Department of Transportation has authorised 1.2 million seats for trips to Cuba…per year, below the 3.4 million [that] airlines requested, but representing significant revenue.”
Unfortunately, just days after the passing of iconic Cuban leader Fidel Castro, US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted a crushing blow to relations between the two states:
If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
Trump’s rhetoric has many US companies concerned, with the fear that a re-freezing of relations would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. Though the concerns are trade-focused, restricting travel would be salt in the wound for the island’s booming tourism industry. Described by Lonely Planet as “timeworn but magnificent, dilapidated but dignified…a country of indefinable magic”, to stall the country’s potential to further its promising tourism industry would be to set back an economy that is already lagging far behind.
It’s not all grey skies on the horizon though. Despite all the concessions with Cuba having been made by executive order – meaning Trump can reverse them at will – Josh Earnest, the White House Press Secretary, reassuringly stated in The New York Times that “unrolling all of that is much more complicated than just the stroke of a pen…it’s just not as simple as one tweet might make it seem”. Nonetheless, the 500,000 private-sector businesspeople that The New York Times has estimated entered the workforce since the loosening of restrictions by the Obama Administration will all have their fingers crossed, particularly those in the hospitality and transportation industries.
