Dorgan thinks that he has the votes to lift travel ban on travel (to bad for the anti-Cuba folks)

[flamingdem]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-trav-0404-cuba-travel-20100402,0,4296537.story

Cuba's hotels could manage a sudden influx of 1 million American tourists if 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 least nine hotels this year, according to Marrero. About 200,000 rooms may be added in the "medium to long term," he added. Cuba also is seeking investment partners for 10 golf courses and luxury hotels aimed at Americans.

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

The tourism meeting came as Congress considers a law that would lift the ban on travel to Cuba. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., 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 told the meeting by phone from Washington. "Punishing Americans by restricting their right to travel just makes no sense at all."

President Barack Obama has said he seeks 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 there. The U.S. State Department 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, according to Jose Manuel Bisbe, commercial director for the Tourism Ministry.

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.

"Havana has been the forbidden city for so long that it will be a boom destination even in the low season," Bisbe said.

[naaman fletcher]

1. Good news. nt.

[naaman fletcher]

2. Do you think Castro will lift his travel ban to the U.S.?

You would support that, right?

[flamingdem]

3. You keep repeating the same tired crap nt

[naaman fletcher]

4. You don't answer it ever, i can only assume that it is because you can't. nt.

[Wilms]

5. Maybe Cuba will lift the ban once the US does.

:shrug:

[naaman fletcher]

6. I hope so. nt.

[protocol rv]

7. It doesn't matter, really

I don't believe the issue is for Cuba to lift travel controls by Cubans. The issue is for the USA to lift travel controls on Americans. I don't think Cuba would lift travel controls because the island's professionals will depart in large numbers - so the government can't afford to open the prison's gates.

The Cuban regime is in a tight spot if the US does allow travel by Americans. They will lose a great excuse to keep the people as slaves of a communist oligarchy, and this will go a long way towards causing the turnover needed to improve things. They really need to change their leadership, and get rid of the communists.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Outstanding! This is the time to strike, right now, this summer, as he said.

Both Republicans and Democrats have been working on this goal for years and years. They even had a large Congressional group working on this during the Clinton administration, involving big, BIG names in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

It was the cluster of Cuban Congresspeeps with their wacko extremist right-winger supporters like Jesse Helms and Tom DeLay who kept control over all attempts to create new legislation which polls showed the American public wanted long, long ago, agitating against it 365 days a year, attacking and destroying political careers of people who tried to change things, like Colorado's Democratic reprsentative David Skaggs, etc., etc.

Now the Cuban Congress peeps' power is waning FAST, whereas they were all powerful during the reign of terror of _{George W. Bush.} This is exactly the time go after this long deferred wish, right, and need.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Rec, #2. Kicking.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: