Sweet deal for owners
Hostess was on the ropes not too long ago, but it is now soughtafter.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The U.S. has authorized the first cruise service to Cuba in half a century.
Carnival Corp. announced Tuesday that it has received U.S. government licenses to offer “purposeful” cruises from the U.S. to Cuba for people-to-people, humanitarian and other exchanges.
Pending approval from Cuban authorities, Carnival aims to offer seven-day trips from Miami to several Cuban ports starting in May on its new “fathom” brand, which offers travel for social causes such as volunteer work and cultural immersion.
The Cuba trips would use the 710-passenger MV Adonia, a deluxe ship that offers no casino or Broadway-type shows but rather features Spanish classes and workshops on island arts and heritage. The relatively small ship could enter even smaller and shallower ports across Cuba.
“We think there’s enormous demand from the U.S. side for this experience,” said fathom President Tara Russell, citing a “hunger” to see a nation off-limits for most Americans since the 1960s.
The cruise approval is part of President Barack Obama’s push announced Dec. 17 to thaw Washington’s Cold War hostilities against Cuba. The two countries have since agreed to reopen embassies in their capitals, and U.S. authorities have given the first approval in five decades for ferries, yacht charters and other transport links between the U.S. and the island just 90 miles south of Florida.
Americans still can’t travel for leisure tourism to Cuba under terms of the U.S. embargo against communist-led Cuba, a measure that must be lifted by Congress. But new rules permit U.S. visits to Cuba without a prior license in 12 categories of travel, including the people-to-people type tours now planned by Carnival’s fathom brand.
Cruise industry analyst Stewart Chiron, who leads Miami-based website CruiseGuy.com, predicts success for fathom’s Cuba venture.
“Demand will be very, very strong because it’s the only ship of an American-focused brand that can visit Cuba,” said Chiron. Americans this year could take a people-to-people cruise through a Canadian company, but its 1,200-passenger ship left from Jamaica or Cuba, not from a U.S. port, he said.
Cuba has started to develop its cruise business in the past few years as part of a fast-growing tourism industry that attracts mainly Canadians, Europeans and Latin Americans. Cuba hosted more than 3 million visitors last year, making it the Caribbean’s second-largest destination after the Dominican Republic. The U.S. is the only country that maintains an embargo and travel ban against the island.
The American Society of Travel Agents estimates that about 2 million more Americans would travel to Cuba by 2017, should the U.S. authorize open U.S. travel to the island this year.