President Biden Easing Cuba Travel Restrictions

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: May 17, 2022

37 comments

In 2015, President Obama lifted many restrictions on travel between the United States and Cuba. Then in 2019, President Trump added major restrictions on travel between the United States and Cuba. Now President Biden is reversing many of Trump’s restrictions on travel to Cuba, bringing the policy more closely in line with that of Obama.

In this post:

Americans can take group trips to Cuba again

As reported by the Miami Herald, President Biden is lifting many of the Cuba travel restrictions that have been in place for the past few years:

US airlines will again be able to fly to Cuban cities other than Havana
Group travel will once again be allowed to Cuba for educational and professional exchanges, as well as the “people-to-people” travel category, which was created by Obama
However, the “people-to-people” individual travel category (which was the most commonly used category for individuals visiting Cuba) won’t be reinstated; this will only be permitted for group travel
Caps will be lifted on sending money to family in Cuba, as the limit is currently $1,000 per quarter

These policy changes come as Cuba is facing its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with shortages of food and medicine. This new policy is intended to allow the Biden administration to support Cuban people while protecting US national security interests.

As a government official described this:

“Our policy continues to center on human rights, empowering the Cuban people to determine their own future and these are practical measures intended to address the humanitarian situation and the migration flows.”

We should shortly learn the full details of this new policy. This represents a significant easing of restrictions, but it still won’t be as easy to travel individually to Cuba as it was under Obama, since the “people-to-people” individual travel category isn’t being reinstated.

This is better than nothing, but…

Personally I’m strongly in favor of travel restrictions between the United States and Cuba being lifted, because at this point they seem arbitrary. There are all kinds of “evil” governments out there, yet the US doesn’t impose travel restrictions for those countries. This seems to be based a lot more on precedent rather than reality.

While I think this is the right move, personally I think the implications here are fairly limited, beyond those with family in Cuba. At a minimum, I don’t think this will be anything like the Cuba travel surge we saw in 2015:

It seems like this is just becoming a partisan thing, and the next time there’s a Republican president, I’m sure Cuba travel restrictions will be tightened again
When Obama first eased travel restrictions, we saw all kinds of investments in the tourism sector in Havana, including major US hotel brands developing properties there, and US airlines vying for slots as a long-term play; I don’t think there will be that much enthusiasm from companies this time around, since they don’t want to invest in something, only to be forced to exit the market again in the future
As many of us learned when we visited Cuba after Obama changed the rules, Cuba wasn’t prepared for the influx of visitors, and for that matter the country is in an even worse spot now

Bottom line

President Biden is easing travel restrictions for Cuba, including allowing flights to airports other than Havana, and reinstating several types of group travel to Cuba. I’d consider this to be a positive development, but I imagine restrictions will just be reimposed when there’s a party change in the White House.

What do you make of Cuba travel restrictions being rolled back?

Support OMAAT

Conversations (37)

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Comment as a member

Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.

Loading comments…

Recent Comments

The latest from the OMAAT community.

iamhere Guest

May 18, 2022, 10:15 pm

Before you write your opinion on the matter, I suggest you check the facts of what you write first because the details that you wrote and the actual details were quite different such as regarding foreign companies operating in Cuba.

‼ 0

yehuda Kovesh MD Guest

May 17, 2022, 11:34 pm

This morning, the news of the lifting of choking restrictions by the USA government was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Cubans in the island. One thing not mentioned here is that instead of 4 visa interviews per day as was the case under Trump, 20 000 new visas will be processed between now and December 2022. So people do not have to resort to dangerous and illegal means to get to the USA which is still the preferred destination for Cuban Emigres. The inflation is an all time high, lack of money coming in from the USA (estimated at 2 billion dollars per year) was one reason. The airfares to Havana from Miami are unreasonably high because of the restrictions as all Cubans returning home for a visit who make up the majority of visitors to the island have to fly to Havana as there are no other flights (cancelled by Trump administration). This is truly a good step in the right direction and lifting of the embargo would help Cuba very much. New government restaurants with international standards are opening up (Polinesico and Paragon at Havana Libre) and the tourist influx would be welcome

‼ 0

Darren C Diamond

May 17, 2022, 9:32 pm

This is great news. Now, when will Biden ease restrictions on US citizens wanting to fly back home from other countries? Over 200,000 untested non-US citizens enter every month and are allowed to stay. US citizens are denied reentry without a negative Covid test.

‼ 0

Juergen Guest

May 17, 2022, 4:07 pm

Easing travel for US citizen is welcomed by many Cubans. I just like to point out a couple of things I just witnessed coming back from Cuba last week. The country suffers tremendously economically at present. The regime has reformed the currency to one single currency. So in theory you have one single currency. In reality there is a fixed conversion rate of 1 Euro being 25 pesos. There is a full swing inflation and on the black market the rate is 125 pesos per Euro. This is driven by the thousands of Cubans leaving their country every month (70.000 arrived at the US border this year ) and are in dire need of cash. The regime restricts heavenly the access to Euro or dollars . Of course tourists will most likely not get black market conversations and will be forced in hotels and many stores to pay with their credit card under the bad conversion. A cocktail can therefore cost you between 2 euro and 6 euro. To make things more complicated there is a third option called MLC , which is a solely digital currency and many stores price with this one, and a Euro is roughly 1 MLC. I doubt that many tourists coming will appreciate this bizarre situation under which Cubans are also suffering. At present everyone tries to get a hand on Euro or Dollar cash.

‼ 0

Patrick D Guest

May 17, 2022, 3:34 pm

Cuba wholeheartedly supports Russia's actions in Ukraine. That's enough reason for me to not go despite restrictions being eased. I've nothing against the Cuban people, but visiting Cuba helps and funds the government, and there are consequences to cozying up to (and accruing debt to) genocidal autocrats.

‼ 0