Hola Cuba!
Obama administration allows U.S. travel to Cuba through scheduled tour groups.

An estimated 100,000 Americans have traveled to Cuba each year on "people to people" trips since the Obama administration lifted certain travel restrictions.STR/AFP/Getty Images
Ever wanted to travel to Cuba to dance to salsa music, see its historic buildings or dine on authentic ropa vieja at its cafes? Despite the trade embargo with the communist nation Americans – including Beyoncé, Jay Z and more recently Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt – have made headlines for their trips to Cuba. The average U.S. citizen can also visit the island with help from the right travel group.
The U.S. has an embargo with Cuba dating back to 1963 that restricts trade and tourism with the island nation except for certain deals on food and medicine, which only Congress can formally remove. A U.S. law passed in 2000 forbids American tourism on the island as a means to stem funds from reaching the repressive communist government.
The Obama administration sought to thaw that Cold War chill using executive power to loosen rules for Cuban-Americans to travel to the island in 2009. In 2011, it allowed broader travel for U.S. citizens to make “people to people” trips, which differ from tourism. President Barack Obama has also expanded the number of airports allowed to fly directly to Cuba, which includes runways in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Since these changes, an estimated 100,000 Americans have traveled to Cuba each year through groups which obtain a license from the Treasury Department for the purpose of “meaningful contact. ” This contact includes education, history, art, and even international baseball outreach, according to the Council of the Americas think tank.
Americans have also traveled to Havana through nearby Caribbean nations, paid about $20 for an entry permit from the Cuban government and had a paper slip stamped to avoid Cuban markings in their U.S. passports, bypassing any questions about the unauthorized trip on return to the U.S.

President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro shook hands at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela.SABC/AP
In contrast the "meaningful contact trips" are legal ways for Americans to travel to Cuba and even get a direct flight from the U.S. to Havana. The catch with these trips is that Americans have to keep a schedule assigned by the group they travel with, they have a tour guide follow them on the entire trip, and people can’t simply break the agenda to visit Cuba’s Varadero Beach, says Chris Sabatini, senior director of policy for Council of the Americas.
“It helps Cubans meet Americans and realize that we are not ‘the Great Satan of the North,’” Sabatini says. “You are seeing this growing trend of travel to Cuba since we realize Americans are the best representatives for change there.”
Cuba has also expanded the ability of Cubans to travel to the U.S., which combined with tours of the island nation, has encouraged the growth of entrepreneurship there. Raul Castro heads the Cuban government due to the fading health of his brother Fidel Castro.
People have been opening cafes out of their homes to compete with state-owned restaurants, and often serve better food at a reasonable price, Sabatini says, reflecting on one of his recent scheduled trips to Cuba with Council of the Americas.
“Since Cuba has lifted restrictions on Cubans going to America, its citizens have researched U.S. businesses,” he says. “They are striving to imitate the best of U.S. restaurants.”
Travelers in Cuba may have to endure some pro-Castro propaganda from government mouthpieces, including the state-sanctioned tour guides, but everyday Cubans eagerly speak with Americans about life in the U.S., says Amber Hoffman, a native of New Jersey, reflecting on her trip to the island in 2013. Cubans eagerly seek sources of outside news in the heavily censored nation, she adds.

Beyoncé and Jay Z aren't the only Americans permitted to visit Cuba.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
Hoffman, a lawyer-turned- travel blogger, says one of her favorite conversations was with a woman who hosted her and her husband in Havana, and asked many questions about free speech and protesting in the U.S.
“She is a teacher in Cuba and shares these things with her students, bravely,” Hoffman recalled to U.S. News in an email. “Most of her students think that if they can get to the U.S., that life is easy and the roads are paved with gold. But she tells them more cautionary tales about how hard it is to be an immigrant in the U.S., particularly if you don't speak English, and how easy it is to get into trouble with all of the different rules. She reminds them that if they get to the U.S. they will have to work hard because things there are expensive.”
There are many examples of scheduled “meaningful contact” trips that Americans interested in a Cuban vacation can arrange through licensed groups including United States Tour Operators Association, National Geographic, the Museum of Modern Art and Insight Cuba. For instance, only 2.6 million of 11.2 million people in Cuba have Internet access, so Schmidt and a group of Google executives visited for the purpose of encouraging Internet freedom on a scheduled trip that included a meeting with students at Havana's University of Information Sciences on Saturday, according to Cuba-based blog 14ymedio.
Beyoncé and Jay Z visited Cuba in 2013 to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, but their trip was approved with a cultural purpose that included meetings with Havana's Superior Art Institute and Cuba’s national contemporary dance troupe. Critics of the high-profile trip to Cuba included Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., son of Cuban immigrants, who tweeted that Jay Z should have remembered the prosecution of rap artists in the communist state.
If interested in what life really like in #Cuba @S_C_ should have visited persecuted rapper #AngelYunierRemon #99problems&dictatorsareone
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 8, 2013
Rubio, a possible presidential candidate for 2016, remains supportive of the embargo to cut Cuba off from American tourism dollars, but the question of whether Congress should formally remove the ban may become an election issue Opponents of the embargo include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, another potential candidate for 2016.
Even if the Castro regime suddenly disappeared from the island nation its military has vast influence on the economy. Cuba's military oligarchy would profit greatly from expanded U.S. tourism through means like the military-controlled Gaviota Tourism Group, Sabatini says.
“Unfettered tourism would certainly increase the hard currency available to the government, and particularly the military,” he says. “But you always have to weigh the benefits of increased communications and human contact with the affect of revenue generation.“
Cuban-American voters are evenly split on whether to end the embargo, according to a recent poll of 1,000 people by Florida International University in Miami. Approximately 51 percent of registered Cuban-American voters want to keep the U.S. embargo, 49 percent are against it, and 71 percent reported that it does not accomplish American interests.
Tags: Cuba, travel, Beyoncé Knowles, Google
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