For years, Cuba has been something of a dream to would-be travelers. Years of heavy sanctions and restrictions on travel and trade made traveling to (or doing business with, in the case of the maritime industry) Cuba an unfulfilled wish, stuck behind embargoes and blockades over the past 50 some odd years.
However, within this past year, that began to change. President Obama managed to loosen the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba by introducing regulations allowing American companies to sell to Cuba on credit, export certain goods, and work directly with entrepreneurs instead of dealing with the government.
All this is well and fine, but how does it affect the the average American traveler? Thanks to the relaxed standards, Cuban authorities have now given approval to two more American cruise lines, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, to sail to Havana.
This is a big development for the American maritime industry, and for a number of reasons. The allowance of cruise ships to Cuban shores will do much for both the Cuban economy and the world of American maritime businesses by both opening up new destinations for curious travellers and allowing Cuban businesses to open up to accept business from the sudden influx of tourism they’re going to see.
And hopefully this could have a larger effect on the American maritime business as a whole. As every commercial ship that flies the American flag is considered a Jones Act vessel, the possibilities for increased maritime business are great. The changing tide in shipments and trade with Cuba should hopefully help bolster the fortunes of a number of shipping companies and industries sending their goods down to Cuba. Obviously, the cruise lines and their passengers will benefit from this as well; even if they are not covered by the Jones Act, they are still able to experience the same economic boom as shipping companies, and any incidents on the vessel are still covered in the case of cruise ship injuries and protected by maritime lawyers and cruise ship attorneys.
Time will tell how this plays out, or how long we can even keep this sort of trade with Cuba going. But in the meantime, it seems like cruise lines are willing to take a chance on increasing trips to Cuba.
