• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 12 / 08 / 2010

---

Reuters. Published: 00:00 December 8, 2010. Gulf News.Increase follows ease on restrictions by Obama.Havana:  More than 1,000 travellers from the US 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.

US charter companies flying to the 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.

US citizens are forbidden from travelling to Cuba without their government's permission under a wide-ranging US 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.

Peak months

"Through October around 265,000 have travelled. 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.

Cuban tourism industry sources said more and more US citizens or Cuba-bound travellers from the US were also arriving through third countries such as Mexico and the Bahamas to get around the US 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 US which lie less than an hour's flight apart, separated by the Florida Straits.

"We estimate the total [visitors from the US to Cuba] for the year will be more than 400,000," a US State Department source said, asking that his name not be used due to restrictions on talking with journalists.

Cuba reported 2.4 million tourists arrived in 2009, with Canada the largest provider at close to 915,000, followed by the UK at 172,000 and Spain at 129,000. The Cuban National Statistics Office reported that Canadian arrivals through October of this year had increased, while there was little change from the UK and a significant drop in Spanish tourism.

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/tourism/