Lifting the travel embargo with Cuba could lead to major economic gains in the U.S. travel industry, according to Professor Patrick Long and special projects manager Ed Sanders of the Center for Sustainable Tourism at the CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business.
Long and Sanders presented their findings about the economic impacts of lifting the ban on travel to Cuba at a press briefing held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., this summer. Their report was released in conjunction with the introduction of legislation by U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, a member of the House International Relations Committee, that would lift the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba.
The study, sponsored by the Cuba Policy Foundation, a nonpartisan organization supporting the end of the travel embargo with Cuba, examined three different possible scenarios and the economic benefits of each to the U.S. travel industry.
In the first scenario, Long and Sanders examined what would happen if it became legal for U.S. residents to travel to Cuba but other aspects of the embargo remained in place. In such a scenario, U.S. carriers and tour operators would not be allowed to bring U.S. tourists there and U.S. residents would have to travel to Cuba via other countries.Ìý
The second scenario assumes that U.S. carriers and tour operators would be allowed to take U.S. residents to Cuba but that other types of companies, such as U.S. hotel operators, would not be allowed to make direct foreign investments or enter management contracts in Cuba. In the third scenario, the travel embargo is completely lifted.
Long and Sanders noted that under the third scenario, "allowing for indirect and induced effects, total U.S. income would near $545 million the first year, creating 3,800 new jobs. In the fifth year, income could grow to $1.9 billion and more than 12,000 new jobs would be created.
"We found that U.S. airlines, cruise ships, ferries, tour operators, travel agents and hotels could all benefit substantially from the more than 3.4 million U.S. travelers who would annually make their way to Cuba."