在美国结束人们前往古巴的人们结束后,旅行社争夺
经过大卫·科格斯威尔(David Cogswell)/
周二,在特朗普政府将其最新裁决关于古巴旅行的裁决后,前往古巴的旅行经营者争先恐后地找到了适应方法。这项新裁决似乎结束了人们前往古巴的法律旅行的人们,并结束了那里的美国邮轮行业。
“Our sense is that this is a ban on People to People travel to Cuba,” said Robert Drumm, president of Alexander + Roberts. “The regulation is murky and lawyers have not fully digested all the detail. I think it is likely that we will not be operating our tours for new travelers. This is a sad day.
“This is a shame, in my opinion, since contact between people is the best way to change life for the better on all sides. These Cuba trips have changed lives.”
旅行社仍在等待外国资产控制办公室(OFAC)的更多信息,并在计划下一步行动时审查政策声明。
“我们目前正在审查特朗普政府昨天的宣布,”泰克(Tauck)土地旅行副总裁杰里米·帕尔默(Jeremy Palmer)说。“我们计划于2019年剩下两次前往古巴的距离,我们的下一个巡回演出直到11月。现在,基于我们对昨天新闻的最初理解,我们将与已经签约与我们一起旅行的客人进行即将到来的古巴巡回演出。”
Most tour operators that started taking travelers to Cuba in 2011 did it under the People to People provision, which has now been eliminated. However, although lawyers are still trying to parse the statements from the government to ascertain their meaning in practical terms, it appears that some other categories of travel are still allowed under current regulations.
奥斯丁冒险公司总裁丹·奥斯汀(Dan Austin)说:“现在,我们正在挖掘并试图验证真正的影响。”“细节有点模糊。看来我们将与目前预订的任何人一起祖父。仍然授权的人计划还有其他非人。关键是确定我们如何适应这些程序,或者如果可以的话。我们现在正在挖掘。”
The grandfather provision
Those who have booked at least one component of a trip, such as an airline ticket or a tour already will be able to complete their trips. For some tour operators, when their current bookings are fulfilled, that will be the end of the line for their Cuba products for the foreseeable future.
Globus put out a statement saying it would fulfill all the trips currently booked and would stop taking new bookings after June 4, the date the new regulations came down.
Abercrombie&Kent发表声明说,尽管该公司仍在等待OFAC的进一步澄清,但“ 2019年6月5日之前进行了确认预订的客人仍将被允许旅行,因此Abercrombie&Kent希望我们的2019年秋季运作按计划出发。”
Apple Vacations在周三写道,随着监管的“支持古巴人民的支持”旅行,而不是人与人之间的法规,其旅行将不会受到监管变化的影响。它还说,它正在开发与OFAC的新规定一致的新旅行。
“仍有高要求古巴,和苹果cations will continue to offer opportunities for American travelers to interact with Cuban culture in compliance with OFAC regulations,” said John Tarkowski, Apple Vacations’ President.
Ronen Paldi, president of Ya’lla Tours, said his company is not affected by the new ruling.
帕尔迪说:“由于我们在2002年获得了出售古巴的许可,因此我们从未使用过P2P规定。”“我们使用其他法律规定将美国人合法带到古巴。所有在2011年开始出售古巴的旅游公司都开始使用P2P,因为他们什么都不知道。”
In a statement to TMR, Collette said it was "saddened to have lost an important way to connect Americans and Cubans through people to people educational travel experiences, but that it was "accustomed to managing through disruptions in the travel landscape."
“古巴作为一个目的地在2019年对我们的表现非常出色,并且在2020年急剧上升,因此,这将对未来几个月的收入增长的一部分产生阻碍。更重要的是,旅行具有独特的能力,可以对其联系的人们和文化产生积极的持久影响。”
Beyond People to People
Central Holidays put out a statement of protest against the new rulings that verbalized the bitterness of a travel industry reeling from this latest surprise blow from the government.
“We are disheartened to learn that the U.S. Government has moved forward with even more stringent restrictions on travel to Cuba. Travel is a hugely important part of the human experience. Exploring new countries and diverse cultures, being awed by amazing sights and tasting different cuisines opens our minds and our hearts. We are beyond disappointed that the government has chosen to limit our travel interactions with this beautiful country.”
但是除了抗议之外,中央假期已经进入了替代的未来。
“However, while the United States Treasury Department has announced this morning that it is removing the authorization for people-to-people group educational travel to Cuba, there are other categories still valid for travel including ‘Support for the Cuban People.’ It is under this authorization that we have been sending passengers to Cuba this year, with individuals staying at Casas Particulares (private homes) and hotels. Central Holidays will continue to market and sell Cuba according to the rules and regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.”
正如中央假期所暗示的那样,人们旅行的人只是前往古巴的十几类合法旅行之一。尽管现在不在桌子上,但一些旅游经营者计划适应并继续将美国人送往古巴,以“对古巴人民的支持”类别。
“While I haven’t concluded my deep dive into the new rules,” said Peggy M Goldman, president of Friendly Planet, “it appears that the only thing that has changed with respect to our company is the rule related to People to People group travel. There are a number of other legal categories that our groups could qualify under and still travel legally.
“我一分钟不希望去古巴的法定旅行能阻止冷漠。在2020年,我们有与我们一起预订旅行的人,我们将尽力兑现我们对旅行者的承诺。”
InsightCuba总裁汤姆·波普(Tom Popper)自2000年以来一直前往古巴的旅行,他告诉旅行市场报告,他的公司将进行调整并继续在政府范围内运行。beplay客服
Popper说:“这只是古巴旅行世界的另一天,总统选举的潮起潮落和您的活动。”
波普尔说,虽然巡航的禁令将对巡航行业造成毁灭性,但情况可能会更糟。
“The change with regard to People to People is unfortunate as well,” he said. “However, the Trump administration didn’t go nearly as far as the Bush administration did in 2003. Eleven of the 12 remain categories of travel remain unchanged. The silver lining here is that back in ‘03 under Bush, all 12 were virtually eliminated. So almost no Americans were legally allowed to travel to Cuba, including Cuban Americans to visit family, which was only allowed every three years.”
When the Trump administration handed down its first round of changes in the Cuba travel laws in November 2017, those changes included a revision of the category “support for Cuban people.”
Popper说:“他们重写了这一类别,使美国人可以前往古巴,以与人们对人们的语言写的方式与古巴人民进行有意义的互动。”“它使您可以与古巴人一起去,与古巴人一起购物,在私人餐馆里吃饭,并互动并合法前往古巴。一个主要区别是为了遵守您无法留在酒店,您需要留在私人住宅中。”
实际上,现在可以在“对古巴人类别的支持”下完成的大部分人在人民身上做的事情。
新法规禁止住在酒店,但允许人们留在私人住宅中。
“That category remains wholly unchanged,” said Popper. “So what we’ve done effective this morning was we changed our tours and travel programs to comply with that. So instead of staying in hotels our guests who book from today on will stay in carefully selected private homes that we’ve been using for years when people request them.”
实际上,住在私人住宅而不是酒店可以进一步促进人们旅行的原始目标。
Popper说:“基于整个旅游业,旅行者正在寻求更亲密,变革和有意义的经历,这以一种重要的方式说明了这一点。”“我们将适应20年的变化。因此,尽管昨天的新闻对旅游业和古巴的古巴人来说是打击,但仍有法律旅行的选择。”
InsightCuba将使其编程符合当前法规。
Popper说:“客人参加的活动必须是通过古巴的独立组织,非政府的。”“旅行者需要参与全职的活动时间表,以增强与古巴人民的接触,从而与古巴人民进行有意义的互动。”
在InsightCuba将客户置于私人住宅中的时候,私人房屋的所有人有机会投资房屋并升级设施。
Popper说:“根据他们的要求,我们多年来一直将人们置于私人住宅中。”“由于自奥巴马开放以来,它变得很受欢迎,因此我们使用的许多属性已改进。因此有私人浴室。住宿是现代的和更新的。这是我们将为未来提供的好处之一。住宿是安全舒适的,因此这将是一种愉快的体验。”
So while clients will not be staying in high rise hotels, they will have intimate experiences with the Cuban people, as in the original spirit of People to People travel.
尽管古巴旅游业在打击下令人震惊,许多古巴人突然失去了收入,但这些裁决并没有结束有意义的旅行的可能性。市场上的一些顽固球员将适应并继续。
波普尔说:“那些做了很长时间的人将剩下。”“对于旅行者来说,选项将减少。想要前往古巴的人将能够找到公司,并且在大多数人想要的方面确实拥有令人难以置信的经验。古巴仍然有20年前的神秘感。如果您从未去过,那么您仍然渴望知道这一切。因此,人们可以继续自己体验古巴。”
不幸的是,尽管云层有一线希望,但这些变化仍然会伤害古巴人民。
波普尔说:“这伤害了住在那里的人们。”“旅行政策的疯狂事情之一是,他们强调了他们对古巴人民的承诺,但政策却没有。想想所有将受到负面影响的人。他们的收入将蒸发。
“Imagine if your livelihood is changed based on the influx of cruise ships. Your family and your extended family are benefitting from this increase of income and then you wake up this morning and that’s completely gone. How do you adjust to that? How do you adapt to that? You can’t. And that leaves devastation in its wake that reverberates throughout the island.”