US Interest In Cuba Unsettles Canadian Business

The rapidly thawing relationship between the United States and Cuba has left one veteran Toronto travel agent who has long been visiting the Caribbean country increasingly struggling to accommodate clients wishing to visit the island, reports Ian Stalker in this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier.

Bonnie Eccles of Moreno Travel says even before the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations this month a growing number of American visitors is straining Cuban tourism infrastructure.

“Hotel rooms [in Havana] are not becoming hard to get. They are impossible to get,” she told Travel Courier. “I have not been able to book a hotel for over five months now and increasingly have had to put my clients in casa particulars [private homes licensed by the Cuban government to host tourists].”

Eccles – who has American clients and is emphatic she doesn’t begrudge Americans visiting a destination many Canadians have viewed as a vacation retreat that particularly caters to us — believes hotel prices have jumped 35% from last year, a development she links to the growing number of Americans.

She said rates have most noticeably gone up in Havana but are “slowly increasing” in such beach locales as Varadero, Holguin and Cayo Coco.

US President Barack Obama’s recent Havana visit was accompanied by a flurry of US-based tourism firms announcing their planned entry or expanded Cuba programs or stating their wish to have a Cuba presence. Those firms included Starwood, United Airlines, Tauck and Carnival Cruise Line.

There are predictions in some quarters that unfettered American travel to Cuba could see a million or more Americans visiting the country within a year, raising questions about Cuba’s ability to accommodate all those wishing to vacation in a country that only in fairly recent years topped the two million annual visitors mark.

Eccles – who has visited Cuba more than 20 times and has travelled throughout the island – said “investment in new hotels is necessary.” A promising development is the building of new hotels between Havana and Varadero, she said.

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier by clicking here.