How Trump’s Cruise Line Ban Affect Cuba Travel
Traveling to Cuba has become even more difficult today. In an effort to steal away economic activities that benefit the Cuban military, intelligence and security services, the Trump administration has banned recreational cruise ship travel to Cuba.
“Cuba continues to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region …” Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said in a statement explaining the change.
People-to-people travel is no longer allowed.
Earlier, during the Obama administration, you could travel to Cuba from the United States if your travel fell into at least one of twelve categories, which included matters such as family visits or educational, journalistic or religious activities. However, formally pure tourism to the country remained illegal.
As a workaround, many travelers would use so-called people-to-people educational trips, meaning you could book a trip organized by a tour group or volunteer project; cruise ships from the United States (and other private passenger ships such as yachts and fishing boats) were also able to visit the country unhindered, which is the most common travel method for Americans visiting Cuba.
This changed back in November 2017, when the Trump administration ruled that group travel between people would only be allowed if they included a guide who could plan all educational activities, as we wrote earlier ; individual educational trips were also prohibited.
However, from today, both group travel between people and travel on a cruise ship are prohibited. What does this mean for American travelers? Well, according to the statement to the press , if you have a “travel-related” transactions in Cuba, which has been booked to date (for example, flight route), it will be “taken into account”, which means that it is likely to be made though it is unclear what this means for existing cruises. In the future, however, these restrictions will make it harder for many Americans to visit the country solely for tourism purposes.
What’s next
If you intend to travel to Cuba now, you will have to meet slightly more stringent criteria; you can still travel to the country for one of eleven other reasons, but you can no longer use the generic education category. (Commercial flights from the United States also remain valid for family travel and “other legal forms of travel.”)
Nonetheless, cruise ships have traditionally brought a significant proportion of American tourists to Cuba. “We are closely monitoring these recent developments and any implications for cruise travel to Cuba,” Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. “We will contact our guests and travel partners as more information becomes available.” If you have already booked a country cruise, it is best to contact the cruise ship to find out how this might affect your trip.