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- Organization: Doctoral student, Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
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- Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
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- From: DowJones@andrew.cmu.edu
- Subject: Old Favorite Cuba Again Becoming U.S. Tourist Hot Spot
- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:26:07 -0500
- Lines: 34
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- American vacationers are likely to flock to some unusual spots this
- year, travel agents say. Among the most surprising possibilities is one
- old favorite: Cuba.
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- U.S. travel restrictions have kept Americans away from the island for
- three decades. The travel ban remains in effect, but rumors of a lifting
- of restrictions and growing anticipation that the Castro government may
- fall have tour operators and cruise companies making plans.
-
- Cruise-ship operators are studying Cuba's various ports of call, conducting
- samples of sailing times, and developing three-day and four-day cruise
- itineraries, says Roger Block, president of Travel Agents International,
- a franchise company based in St. Petersburg, Fla. Rod McLeod, executive
- vice president of sales and marketing at Royal Caribbean Cruises, Miami,
- says, "Those of us who are active in the Caribbean are taking a look
- at how destinations in Cuba can be included in our itineraries."
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- Cuba was also among the new destinations that showed up in a poll by
- the American Society of Travel Agents in which travel professionals were
- asked to forecast the top destinations for 1993. Europe, the U.S. and
- the Pacific Rim were the leading picks, but "with the fall of so many
- regimes around the world, people are expecting it will eventually happen
- in Cuba, too," says Jim Eraso, Florida area director for the travel agents'
- group.
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- Low hotel rates and exceptional beaches account for much of the interest
- in Cuba. The country's infrastructure is hardly ready to handle an influx
- of travelers. But "because it has been forbidden fruit, Cuba will boom
- as a tourist destination when the restrictions are lifted," Block says.
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