Legislation Could Reverse U.S. Ban on Travel to Cuba

Could there possibly be more bad news for The Bahamas on the tourism front? The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act is making its way through the United States House of Representatives and if passed, would signal an end to the 46-year-old ban on Americans being allowed to travel to Cuba.

The act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 4, would allow U.S. citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba for the first time since 1963. It would also lift limits on travel by Cuban exiles living in the United States.

The bill is introduced every few years but often fails, but with the election of President Barack Obama, the bill’s passage seems to have its highest chance of succeeding.

What exactly does this mean for The Bahamas, which thousands of Americans use each year as a guise to slip into the forbidden and exotic Cuba ‘unnoticed’?

Some have said lifting the ban means very little because the communist nation is not as prepared as The Bahamas to cater to tourists.

“There could certainly be fallout for The Bahamas because it’s a cheaper experience; however, it will start to get more expensive as it starts to modernize,” Rick Lowe, vice-president of The Nassau Institute, a local think tank, recently told The Nassau Guardian.

But The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act could certainly spell bad news for The Bahamas.

Some experts have forecast that there will be serious implications for Caribbean destinations like The Bahamas that are heavily dependent on the U.S. market. Not only could stopover visitors be affected, but also the cruise tourism market.

Tourism accounts for 60 percent of The Bahamas’ GDP, and the large majority of the country’s tourists come from the U.S.

In a shaky economy like the one we are now facing, the possibility of the removal of the travel ban must be of at least some concern to tourism officials who are battling with shrinking arrival numbers and scrambling to come up with fresh ideas to revive a slumping market.

It’s hard to imagine that things could be much worse for the American economy right now. Almost every day offers up more bad news. There have been thousands of job losses, foreclosures and poor retail sales (however, yesterday retail sales showed a rebound and new jobless claims reportedly slipped). To make matters worse, the newly-appointed President Obama is having trouble convincing lawmakers that his stimulus plan will, at least to some degree, help save the economy.

Just this week, when asked to respond to news that Jamaica had defied all odds by posting an increase in stopover visitors, Tourism Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said The Bahamas needs more all-inclusive and cheaper vacations, like Jamaica.

We will leave what The Bahamas needs in terms of tourism to the well-qualified minister and his team at the Ministry of Tourism, but it is clear that the country’s tourism industry is in need of a significant boost, especially as competition in the region grows.

What the lifting of the U.S. travel ban to Cuba will exactly mean for The Bahamas is still unclear, if in fact it happens at all, but it is another much-needed wake-up call for an industry that continues to decline with no immediate end in sight.