Today, June 16, President Donald Trump made a statement that will affect how U.S. citizens may engage in travel to Cuba in the future. We understand you may have concerns about how your travel plans could be impacted. Here’s what you need to know.
According to the Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC):
- Changes to regulatory amendments will not take effect immediately. The changes mentioned in today’s statement will be issued and implemented over the next several months.
- The new policy will primarily affect individual people-to-people travel, which will no longer be permitted once the new regulations go into effect.
- Group people-to-people travel is still authorized at this time. As is currently the case, groups must maintain a full-time schedule of educational activities, resulting in meaningful interaction between the traveler and individuals in Cuba, and must be accompanied by an employee, consultant, or agent of the group. Most of Holbrook’s travelers to Cuba fall under this category and will not be affected by the new regulations.
- Travel that falls under an academic license is still authorized at this time.
- For individual people-to-people travel, any existing travel arrangements will not be affected by the new regulations. As long as you have completed at least one transaction (eg if you have already purchased a flight or reserved a hotel), you can continue to make travel arrangements for that trip; they will not be affected by new regulations.
- At some point in the future, the State Department will publish a list of Cuban military, intelligence, or security services that U.S. companies are prohibited from doing business with. This may limit, but not prohibit, Holbrook’s ability to work with certain in-country providers in the future. As Holbrook Travel has been working in Cuba since 2000, we are fortunate to have a wide network of contacts and relationships in the country that will allow us to continue to serve our travelers going forward.
- If you have existing travel arrangements to Cuba organized through Holbrook Travel that are affected by the changes in policy, we will contact you to discuss options.
The full text of OFAC’s formal announcement can be viewed here. If you have questions about an existing travel program, please contact your specialty travel consultant.
