Seatrade Cruise News is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

US pulls back Cuba travel warning

PHOTO: Andy Newman/Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Paradise in Havana
The US Department of State reduced its Cuba travel warning from Level 3 ('reconsider travel'), put in place almost one year ago, to Level 2 ('exercise increased caution').

'Highly politicized process'

Cuba expert Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel, called it 'a breath of fresh air in a highly politicized process of confusion, anxiety and speculation which led to an excessive measure by the State Department.'

He added: 'Given that the initial decision to increase the Cuba travel warning was politically motivated, the United States government is righting its wrong by assessing that Americans need not reconsider travel to Cuba in order to stay safe.'

'Most people have no idea what levels mean or the difference between them,' Bruce Nierenberg, chairman of Victory Cruise Lines, told Seatrade Cruise News. 'What makes a difference is when the politicians decide to use travel as a political football.'

Nierenberg said demand softened for operators in the senior market, like Victory, last summer, fall and winter when 'Trump made it sound like he was limiting travel there when in fact he did very little. It was a political favor repaid to South Florida conservative Cuban Americans and little more than that. But it did make a difference and bookings definitely dropped off.'
 
This, combined with the hurricanes that came one after another, did not help, Nierenberg added. For Victory, the winter demand 'never rebounded as the lingering impact of the negative politics and the Caribbean’s nightmare hurricane season changed a lot of people’s plans.'
 
Recently, though, Cuba bookings are showing some healthy signs for this coming winter, according to Nierenberg, even though many more ships are going than last year.

Deployment surges ahead

 
During the time the heightened warning was in place, cruise lines continued to move forward with Cuba plans. These included, most recently, Seabourn. As well, MSC Cruises announced its first Miami to Havana voyages open to US citizens (for some time, MSC has carried non-US citizens to Cuba), and Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Scenic, Ponant and Victory Cruise Lines, among others, added departures.
 

Though major lines seemed to have little trouble selling Cuba during the months the Level 3 warning was in place, some smaller operators—those that offer longer sailings around the island, with more port calls—did report an impact.

Similar to Victory's experience, last November Lindblad Expeditions reported few new bookings, while there were some cancellations. CFO Craig Felenstein forecast then that Cuba would still be profitable for Lindblad, but not at the return originally projected.

Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean International president and CEO Michael Bayley had said that when the warning broke in the media, the company received a spike in queries from customers and travel partners. 'Everybody was trying to seek clarity but after, literally, a few days, things just returned to normal and the business is very good for our Cuba product,' he said.

'One of the world's safest countries'

In Laverty's view, 'Cuba continues to be one of the safest countries in the world to visit and hundreds of thousands of Americans—and millions of global travelers—enjoy all that it has to offer each year with no health or security risks to note.'

Laverty added that foreign service officers in Washington and diplomats on the ground in Havana favor increased travel to support the Cuban people.

'I look forward to President Trump and Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo addressing Cuba in a smart and respectful manner and opening up travel and trade further,' Laverty said.

The State Department had put the Level 3 warning in place last September after US Embassy employees in Havana were allegedly 'targeted in specific attacks' that caused them to suffer 'significant injuries' including 'ear complaints and hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping.'

The State Department's travel advisory scale has one higher level, 4 ('do not travel').