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| Cuba can service U.S. tourists if ban is lifted, officials say |
 Cuba's tourism industry will have enough capacity for the surge of American travelers expected should U.S. lawmakers lift restrictions on visits to the island, said Miguel Figueras, an advisor at Cuba's tourism ministry. Cuba agrees with an estimate by the American Society of Travel Agents that 835,000 U.S. tourists a year, excluding cruise ships or Cuban-American family visitors, would come after an end to the travel ban, Figueras said. Cuba aims to build 30 new hotels with 10,000 rooms and 10 golf courses by 2014 without counting on changes in U.S. policy, he said.
''The Americans are welcome here,'' Figueras said this week in Havana's historic Hotel Nacional. ``You have to be prepared for that, but you can't make your development plans depend on whether this happens.''
U.S. lawmakers may consider an end to the ban on travel to the communist island, which has been under a U.S. trade embargo for almost five decades. President Barack Obama in April loosened travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans visiting family members and lifted caps on money Cuban-Americans may send relatives there. But he maintained the overall embargo, which forbids most commerce and financial transactions between the United States and Cuba.
''This issue is being discussed in an absolutely brand new environment, which is drawing support that it has lacked in the past,'' said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who co-sponsored the bill to lift the travel ban.
An end to the travel ban might erode other aspects of the embargo such as the ban on bank relations, which keeps travelers from using U.S. credit or debit cards in Cuba, Figueras said.
After Obama announced changes to travel rules for Cuban-Americans, Figueras said, the number of passengers flying to Cuba from the United States doubled to about 20,000, compared to a year earlier. READ FULL ARTICLE |
