Canada: the number one supplier of Cuban tourists
Cuban tourists
Regardless of what the U.S. chains decide, Canadians are likely to continue flocking to Cuba. Canada was the number one supplier of Cuban tourists last year, accounting for 120,000 of the Caribbean island country’s 700,000 visitors. Many of those people, or their friends and relatives, are likely to return next winter. And if they are denied the right to book with one travel agency, they are likely to spend their money with another one down the street.
The spectre, however, of any government, especially a foreign one, telling Canadians where they can or cannot travel, is scary.
While Americans have become used to having their State Department dictate which countries are off limits, Canadians have always taken the freedom to travel as a basic right. Even during worldwide sanctions against South Africa over apartheid, the Canadian government moved only to discourage the promotion of travel to the country. Canadians were allowed to continue travelling there.
The Alliance of Canadian Travel Associations, a national organization representing the travel industry, is ready to take up the cause if any chain stops selling Cuba, says Hugh Campbell, president.
“We’ve always taken the stand that travel should be free anywhere you want to go,” he says.
American Express has no intention of returning to its original stand, says David Barnes, vice-president public affairs and communications.
“We’ve taken the position, we are a company incorporated in Canada, working in Canada. We have to comply with the local laws.”
And that’s the way it should be.
Meanwhile Canada’s Delta Hotels & Resorts, which operates a number of properties in Cuba, has so far escaped the wrath of U.S. hardliners.
Marilotte Bloemen, spokeswoman for the chain, says the U.S. government has taken no action against the chain or its one U.S. hotel located near Orlando. Delta is not in violation of the Helms-Burton bill because none of its Cuban hotels use property confiscated from American owners, she says. Besides Delta simply holds a management contract for hotels owned by Cuban authorities.