US & Cuba Relations: Travel to Cuba Up 36 Percent Amid Restoration of Diplomatic Relations with US
Tourism is picking up fast in Cuba as the communist island and the United States reestablish diplomatic relations.
Although the process has nowhere near finalized, Americans have wasted no time in traveling to Cuba.
An Associated Press report found American travel to Cuba has increased by 36 percent between January and early May of 2015 compared to the same time period last year. The numbers jumped just a month after President Barack Obama announced the U.S. and Cuban governments were in talks to resume relations after more than 50 years.
Some 51,458 Americans traveled to Cuba in between Jan. 1 and May 9, though not all of these travelers departed from the U.S. directly. As much as third of them came from third countries to circumvent the U.S. restrictions on tourism travel to the island. Most Americans traveled through Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
Professor Jose Luis Perello Cabrera of the University of Havana provided the AP with the statistics. Those who flew directly numbered at around 38,476, even less than the number of overall travelers last year. In total, 37,459 traveled to Cuba in the same period last year.
U.S. travel is not the only one surging in Cuba as overall tourism rose by 14 percent. Most of the visitors came from Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
The U.S., however, has not managed to reach an agreement with the Cuban government on the reopening of embassies. Last week talks between the two delegations failed to move forward.
Yet, the stalled talks have not dissuaded another group from venturing into the island: lawyers.
A delegation of 37 attorneys representing the Florida Bar Association will travel to Cuba on Wednesday for a three-day trip to the island, reports the Miami Herald. The group will meet with Cuban legal scholars and lawyers to better understand the island's legal system as more American businesses and tourists begin working with Cubans. Florida, with its high number of Cuban Americans, could prove essential in the reestablishment of relations, even between lawyers.
"Many practitioners are first- and second-generation Cuban-Americans. I think the firms in Miami are the best positioned nationally to take advantage of what's going on," Yosbel Ibarra of Greenberg Traurig's Latin American and Iberian practice group told the Miami Herald.
The legal community is also mobilizing on another front. After the Cuban Revolution, the communist government took over various American properties, then valued at almost $2 billion. Now, Americans seek to sue the government for payments for these lost properties, which have increased in value to at least $7 billion.
Although Cuba has no funds to pay back these claims, the State Department has taken over the cases.
Other interested players are neighboring nations who have wanted to do business with the island but could not because of status as a sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. will remove Cuba from the list next week, opening up the island to foreign business as well.
Cuba has also reciprocated and began establish financial ties with the U.S. Last week, the island opened its first American bank account with the local Florida Stonegate Bank, reports CNN Money. The gesture could reassure American banks and businesses about Cuba's prospects.
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