US companies wishing to enter the Cuban tourism market
"With travel to Cuba now surging, existing Cuban hotels are full and hotel companies from other countries are racing to tie up as many of the new hotels as they can before the likes of Marriott and our U.S. competitors show up," Sorenson said in a statement.
More and more hoteliers and other members of the hospitality industry are clamoring for entry into the Cuban market, alongside the charter services that arrived first, the airlines lining up to offer regularly-scheduled commercial service, and the ferries and cruise liners that are angling for Cuba's approval to arrive with passengers on-board. Much of this, however, depends on repeal of the U.S. trade sanctions.
U.S. firms Cruise Line Holding Ltd. and Choice Hotels seek to enter the market as soon as possible. Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH), one of three major global cruise lines applied for permission to operate to Cuba, according to a Travel Pulse article from August 4.
NCLH CEO Frank Del Rio believes that "Once Cuba opens totally it's going to be a real windfall for the cruise line industry." Despite policy changes in December, NCLH still needs approved licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Commerce Department, along with permission from the Cuban government before moving forward. Del Rio continues, "We don't know the timing of when any of those will come through, but we hope they do before the year is out."
