ClydeR
03-21-2016, 09:18 AM
I imagine Captain Kirk will soon be advertising hotel rooms in Cuba. Would you visit while Castro is still in power?
Priceline Group has agreed with Cuba to make Cuban hotel rooms available to U.S. customers via subsidiary Booking.com, becoming the first U.S. online travel agency to strike a deal with the island state, a Booking.com executive said.
The deal comes on the first full day of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba and on the heels of U.S. hotel firm Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's agreement with the Cuban government to manage and market three Havana hotel properties.
More... (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-priceline-group-idUSKCN0WN0X7)
Cuban tourism infrastructure has seen significant strain since U.S. relations to the island warmed. Prices have surged for the island’s 63,000 hotel rooms, many of which are booked solid months in advance. Cuba received a record 3.52 million visitors last year, up 17.4 percent from 2014. American visits rose 77 percent to 161,000, not counting hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans.
Tourism to Cuba is still technically illegal under the U.S. trade embargo. U.S. travelers to the island are required to do so under "general licenses" which permit travel for religion, family visits, cultural exchange, sports, and other purposes approved by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. On March 17 OFAC said it would allow individual people-to-people educational exchanges, as well.
Booking.com would ask travelers to certify that they fit one of the Treasury's approved travel categories, but would not verify their status, Dunlap said.
Priceline Group has agreed with Cuba to make Cuban hotel rooms available to U.S. customers via subsidiary Booking.com, becoming the first U.S. online travel agency to strike a deal with the island state, a Booking.com executive said.
The deal comes on the first full day of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba and on the heels of U.S. hotel firm Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's agreement with the Cuban government to manage and market three Havana hotel properties.
More... (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-priceline-group-idUSKCN0WN0X7)
Cuban tourism infrastructure has seen significant strain since U.S. relations to the island warmed. Prices have surged for the island’s 63,000 hotel rooms, many of which are booked solid months in advance. Cuba received a record 3.52 million visitors last year, up 17.4 percent from 2014. American visits rose 77 percent to 161,000, not counting hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans.
Tourism to Cuba is still technically illegal under the U.S. trade embargo. U.S. travelers to the island are required to do so under "general licenses" which permit travel for religion, family visits, cultural exchange, sports, and other purposes approved by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. On March 17 OFAC said it would allow individual people-to-people educational exchanges, as well.
Booking.com would ask travelers to certify that they fit one of the Treasury's approved travel categories, but would not verify their status, Dunlap said.