"Be Careful with Tourism from the United States" by Manuel Yepe

[magbana]

BE CAREFUL WITH TOURISM FROM THE UNITED STATES

By Manuel E. Yepe

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2433.html
A CubaNews translation by Will Reissner.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

The advantages and dangers of Cuba being opened to visitors from the
United States have begun to be assessed from a great variety of angles
and interests, both in the United States and Cuba, as well as in other
contexts.

North of the Florida Strait – according to the polls – the populace is
in favor of lifting the prohibition on trips to Cuba, despite the
slander campaign against the Cuban political process that has taken
place in that country for half a century.

Informed sources estimate that each year some 40,000 U.S. citizens
enter Cuba through Mexico or Canada to enjoy vacations, at the risk of
being punished for breaking the immigration laws of their country, but
with the full knowledge of Cuban immigration officials. The figure,
although insignificant in the grand total of 2.3 million visitors who
arrived in 2008, is revealing given the severe penalties to which
these furtive vacationers are exposed.

The constant position of the Cuban government in this regard has been
to not hinder the visit of Americans to Cuba, as part of its policy of
fighting isolation.

In recent statements, Bob Withley, the president of the United States
Tour Operators Association, maintained that “there is a mystique”
regarding Cuba, precisely because “a lot of people want to see it
because we’ve been denied the right.”

Some time ago, right in the middle of George W. Bush’s administration,
the U.S. Congress – without the Democratic majority it has today –
passed resolutions opposing the travel ban, which did not go anywhere
due to the threat of presidential veto.

Recently it was revealed that a bipartisan group of Senators in
Washington introduced a new bill that would lift the prohibition on
travel to Cuba by citizens of the United States. It was noted that the
initiative would result in income of between 1.2 billion and 1.6
billion dollars per year for U.S. businesses and would create about
23,000 jobs in that country.

On May 6, former president James Carter told the Brazilian daily Folha
de São Paulo that the initiatives adopted thus far by Obama to loosen
the restrictions enacted against the island have been less daring than
might have been desired and “not as good as those of the two houses of
the U.S. Congress, which are today a step ahead of the president
regarding Cuba.”

In Carter’s opinion, “the next step should be immediate removal of all
travel restrictions to the island...The end of the embargo will follow
suit’.”

This last conclusion is logical. If you figure that each year no fewer
than 3 million U.S. citizens would take advantage of the lifting of
the prohibition on travel to Cuba, it stands to reason that the U.S.
business community would demand to participate in the division of the
economic benefits that this tourism would generate rather than
graciously ceding those benefits to its counterparts in other
countries who are already involved in the Cuban tourist industry.

In the legislative arena, the members of Congress of Cuban origin,
known as “Batistianos” (because of their roots in the Batista tyranny
that was defeated by the revolution), are prominent in opposing the
measure to recognize the constitutional right of U.S. citizens to
travel to the only country forbidden to them by law. These members of
Congress have been promoted by four successive administrations which
shared a neoconservative orientation, from Ronald Reagan to Bush Jr.,
including the Clinton administration.

The possibility that the United States might lift the prohibition on
its citizens traveling to Cuba is also being followed closely in the
Caribbean because as a destination Cuba would be very serious
competition in the market for U.S. tourists.

But West Indian businessmen in the travel and leisure industry, among
whom it was hoped that panic would spread, are talking more about the
benefits than the dangers that the new situation would bring if it
became an incentive for the whole region.

In Cuba, a growing number of people are in favor of U.S. tourism once
again filling the predominant place that it had before the revolution,
50 years ago, because in their view there are clear complementary
economic interests in the sector. The massive influx of tourists from
the wealthy neighboring country is seen as a way in which citizens of
that country could compensate Cubans for all the suffering and
privations that have been imposed on them for 50 years by U.S.
administrations.

Others, starting out from seemingly less naive positions, feel that
the large-scale arrival of visitors from the country that is the
leader of world capitalism would further the interventionist aims that
have always guided United States policy regarding Cuba, with the goal
of weakening popular support for the Cuban revolutionary process.

U.S. tourism can be beneficial for both nations and peoples if it is
based on respectful relations between equals.

June 2009