The US announced major new restrictions on US citizens traveling to Cuba on Tuesday, blocking the most common way Americans are able to visit the island — through organized tour groups that license US citizens to travel automatically — and banning US cruise ships from stopping in the country.

American tourism is not explicitly permitted in Cuba. However, Americans can travel to Cuba if it is covered under specific categories, which included organized group travel, known as group people-to-people travel, until Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement that the restrictions are a result of Cuba continuing “to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up US adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes.”

The State Department announced that “going forward, the United States will prohibit US travelers from going to Cuba under the previous ‘group people-to-people educational’ travel authorization. In addition, the United States will no longer permit visits to Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, and private and corporate aircraft.”

A State Department spokesperson for Western Hemisphere affairs said the new restrictions “on US passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, and corporate and private aircraft, steers American dollars away from the Cuban regime, and its military and security services, who control the tourism industry in Cuba.”

Commercial flights from the US will continue to be permitted as they “broadly support family travel and other lawful forms of travel,” according to the spokesperson.

The Trump administration announced plans to further restrict travel to Cuba in April, when White House national security adviser John Bolton said the Treasury Department would “implement further regulatory changes to restrict non-family travel to Cuba.”

Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the new restrictions are part of President Donald Trump’s commitment to holding “the Cuban regime accountable for its direct destabilizing role in the hemisphere and contribution to the repression of the people of Venezuela.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross maintained that “Cuba remains communist, and the United States, under the previous administration, made too many concessions to one of our historically most aggressive adversaries.”

Under President Barack Obama, the US eased several restrictions with Cuba, permitting, among other things, educational tours, commercial air travel and cruises of the island for American citizens. The US also reopened its embassy in Havana and Cuba reopened its embassy in Washington.

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who reopened the Cuban embassy in Washington in 2015, called the new restrictions “an attack on international law.”

“The tightening of the US blockade against Cuba and its extraterritorial implementation is and the sovereignty of all States. It is the main obstacle to our development and a flagrant violation of the human rights of all Cubans,” Rodríguez Parilla said in a tweet.

Engage Cuba, a group which works to foster business between the US and Cuba, called the restrictions “an attack on our fundamental right as citizens.”

“The federal government should not be policing where Americans go on vacation. Our core freedoms should not be held hostage by politicians for naked partisanship,” said James Williams, president of Engage Cuba. “Today’s news is especially damaging for the Cuban people, particularly the burgeoning Cuban private sector, who rely on American travelers to support their businesses and families.”

Cuban government statistics say US citizens have quickly grown to become the second largest foreign group visiting the island after Canadians.

The Treasury Department in a statement clarified that “certain group people-to-people educational travel that previously was authorized will continue to be authorized where the traveler had already completed at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodation) prior to June 5, 2019.”

The Trump administration recently allowed US companies and Cuban-Americans to sue companies using property that was seized after the 1959 Cuban revolution, including cruise ship terminals and airports.

Carnival Cruise Line was the first company to be sued under the law, Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which previous administrations had waived. </s> Alexandre Meneghini, REUTERS | Tourists walk next to the Majesty of the Seas cruise ship, owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, in Havana, Cuba, May 6, 2019

The Trump administration banned cruises to Cuba under new restrictions on U.S. travel to the Caribbean island imposed on Tuesday to pressure its Communist government to reform and stop supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The tightening of the decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba will further wound its crippled economy, as well as hurt U.S. travel companies that had built up Cuban business during the brief 2014-2016 detente between the old Cold War foes.

The State Department said the United States will no longer permit visits to Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft.

The U.S. Commerce Department told Reuters the ban would be effective from Wednesday, giving cruise lines no grace period to change destinations and creating confusion among cruise passengers.

“Please tell me that my cruise to Cuba (in 18 days) is still going to be a cruise to Cuba,” beseeched Matthew Watkins on Twitter.

Royal Caribbean Cruises announced that ships sailing Wednesday and Thursday would no longer stop in Cuba and it would provide updates on future cruise destinations.

Carnival Corp said it would have additional information in “the very near future”. Norwegian Cruise Line likewise said it was monitoring the situation.

The United States will also no longer allow so-called group people-to-people educational travel, one of the most popular exemptions to the overall ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba. Travel experts said some groups may get around that by instead using one of the 11 other categories still allowed.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had announced the new restrictions in April as part of its rollback of the U.S.-Cuban detente under former President Barack Obama and its broader battle against socialism in Latin America.

Cuba experts say the Trump administration appears to be partly eyeing the presidential elections next year, with the key swing state of Florida home to many Cuban-American exiles who welcome the harder line on Havana.

“The Administration has advanced the President’s Cuba policy by ending ‘veiled tourism’ to Cuba and imposing restrictions on vessels,” said a tweet from Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, who has led the U.S. campaign against what he has called the “troika of tyranny” of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

“We will continue to take actions to restrict the Cuban regime’s access to U.S. dollars.”

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the island would not be intimidated.

“They have not been able to asphyxiate us, they will not be able to stop us, we will continue to live and we will conquer,” he wrote on Twitter.

Many analysts have said the Trump administration is pursuing a failed policy of trying to overthrow Cuba’s government through sanctions, which has served only to give Havana an excuse for its own economic failings over the past 60 years and a pretext to clamp down on domestic opposition.

This is the second time the Trump administration has tightened U.S. travel restrictions on Cuba. While the measures are designed to hit government coffers, they are also hurting Cuba’s fledgling private sector, which the United States has said it wants to support.

“This is another hard blow,” said Miguel Ángel Morales, owner of La Moneda Cubana, a restaurant in Old Havana. “Around 50% of our business comes from the cruise ships.”

The Trump administration is hitting the two areas of the economy, tourism and investment, that have helped Cuba keep the economy afloat even as it has faced declining Venezuelan aid and exports in recent years.

Last month, the administration allowed U.S. lawsuits against foreign companies for the use of property confiscated after Cuba’s 1959 revolution, a move that will likely dampen future foreign investment.

Meanwhile, U.S. travel to Cuba had boomed in recent years after Obama loosened restrictions, allowing the re-establishment of regular commercial flights and cruise services.

The United States became the second-largest source of travelers to the island after Canada, with a majority arriving on cruises ships.

According to the Cuban government, 257,500 U.S. citizens, not including those of Cuban origin, visited Cuba from January through March, with 55% arriving on cruise ships.

But critics of the Cuban government said much of this travel was not for educational but rather for recreational purposes, which contradicted the ban on tourism.

“He thinks we are just coming here as a tourist but you are learning so much. It’s ridiculous we won’t be able to come anymore,” said Cheryl Kolar, 68, a retired nurse who had traveled to Havana by cruise ship.

“Cuba is the only country we are not allowed to go to. We can go to Russia, but for some reason Trump has something against Cuba.” </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US Cuba cruise ban: Tourists and locals react

The US has announced a new ban on travel to Cuba for American group tours as well as cruise ships journeying to the island.

The move, which was announced by Trump administration officials, intends to roll back a US-Cuba thaw that began under President Barack Obama.

It is unclear exactly how the rules, which take effect on Wednesday, will impact travel to the island nation.

US officials say the new rules seek to punish the country's communist regime.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement on Tuesday the measures come in response to Cuban efforts "to play a destabilising role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up US adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes".

"This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime," Mr Mnuchin said.

"These actions will help to keep US dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services."

US tourism to Cuba is not permitted, but certain forms of organised group travel, known as "people-to-people" travel, had been allowed until Tuesday's announcement.

Commercial travel can continue, as long as the trips "broadly support family travel and other lawful forms of travel", a US State Department spokesperson added, but other vessels such as private yachts or planes are banned.

Cruise ship companies have not yet reacted to the news, but Norwegian Cruise Lines tweeted to one concerned customer: "We are closely monitoring these recent developments and any resulting impact to cruise travel to Cuba.

"We will communicate to our guests and travel partners as additional information becomes available."

Cuban government statistics show that Americans have become the second largest group of visitors to the island, after Canadians - with more arriving by ship than plane.

Americans who have already booked "at least one travel related transaction" - such as purchasing a flight - will still be allowed to continue their travel, US officials say.

White House national security adviser John Bolton outlined plans for sanctions earlier this year, referring to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as a "troika of tyranny".

In a tweet on Tuesday, he said the new rule means "ending 'veiled tourism' to Cuba".

In a statement, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross added: "Cuba remains communist, and the United States, under the previous administration, made too many concessions to one of our historically most aggressive adversaries."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Life after Castro - 'We have to continue the revolution'

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who travelled to Washington in 2015 to re-open the Cuban embassy, criticised the latest move as "an attack on international law", adding that it was "aimed at suffocating" the country's economy.

The White House announced in April that Cuban-Americans and US businesses could sue companies who use or own property that was seized from Americans during the 1959 Cuban Revolution. </s> The Trump administration on Tuesday ended the most popular forms of U.S. travel to Cuba, banning cruise ships and a heavily used category of educational travel in an attempt to cut off cash to the island's communist government.

Cruise travel from the U.S. to Cuba began in May 2016 during President Barack Obama's opening with the island. It has become the most popular form of U.S. leisure travel to the island, bringing 142,721 people in the first four months of the year, a more than 300% increase over the same period last year. For travelers confused about the thicket of federal regulations governing travel to Cuba, cruises offered a simple, one-stop, guaranteed-legal way to travel.

That now appears to be over.

"Cruise ships as well as recreational and pleasure vessels are prohibited from departing the U.S. on temporary sojourn to Cuba effective tomorrow," the Commerce Department said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The new restrictions are part of a broader effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to roll back the Obama-era efforts to restore normal relations between the United States and Cuba, which drew sharp criticism from the more hardline elements of the Cuban-American community and their allies in Congress.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, who declared Cuba part of a "troika of tyranny" along with Nicaragua and Venezuela as he outlined new sanctions in November, said the new policy is intended to deny the Cuban government a vital source of revenue.

"The Administration has advanced the President's Cuba policy by ending 'veiled tourism' to Cuba and imposing restrictions on vessels," Bolton said on Twitter. "We will continue to take actions to restrict the Cuban regime's access to U.S. dollars."

Cruise lines carrying passengers booked before Tuesday had been hoping that they could request specific federal permits to complete their trips to Cuba, said Pedro Freyre, a Miami-based attorney who represents Carnival and three other major cruise lines.

"For now, it's prohibited unless the cruise lines requests a specific license," Freyre said. He said cruise lines had been trying to determine "if there's any opening there to at least complete trips that have been booked and passengers that have made travel plans."

Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement that it was scrutinizing the new rules and consulting with lawyers and trade experts.

"We are closely monitoring these recent developments and any resulting impact to cruise travel to Cuba," Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. "We will communicate to our guests and travel partners as additional information becomes available."

Shore excursions from cruise ships tend to be organized by the cruise lines in cooperation with Cuban government tour agency Havanatur. A smaller number hire private tour guides or drivers of restored classic cars who wait outside Havana's cruise docks.

"This affects all of us," said William Mártinez, 58, a Cuban-born American who lived in Florida for 46 years but returned five years ago to drive a classic car for tourists. "It's inhuman, the sanctions that they're putting on Cuba."

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the measures are a response to what it calls Cuba's "destabilizing role" in the Western Hemisphere, including support for the government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

"This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime," Mnuchin said. "These actions will help to keep U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services."

Cruise ships have brought thousands of Americans to Cuba since the U.S. began restoring full diplomatic relations with the communist government in December 2014 and have provided an important economic lifeline to the island.

Along with the cruise ships, the U.S. will also now ban most private planes and boats from stopping in the island.

"Consequently, private and corporate aircraft, cruise ships, sailboats, fishing boats, and other similar aircraft and vessels generally will be prohibited from going to Cuba," according to the new rules published by the Commerce Department.

The new restrictions take effect Wednesday, but the government will allow anyone who has already paid for the trip to go ahead with it.

Cruises have become more popular than flights for leisure travelers to Cuba — nearly 30,000 more came by cruise ship than flights this year. The figures exclude Cuban-born Americans visiting family on the island.

Commercial airline flights appear to be unaffected by the new measures and travel for university groups, academic research, journalism and professional meetings will continue to be allowed.

"It kills the people-to-people category, which is the most common way for the average American to travel to Cuba," said Collin Laverty, head of Cuba Educational Travel, one of the largest Cuba travel companies in the U.S.

The new restrictions had been previewed by national security adviser John Bolton in an April speech in Miami to veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion but details of the changed were public until Tuesday. Treasury said the sanctions would take effect on Wednesday after they are published in the Federal Register.

___

Weissenstein reported from Havana, Cuba. Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana; Adriana Gomez-Licon in Miami and Ben Fox in Washington also contributed to this report.

Copyright 2019 Associated Press. All rights reserved. </s> The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed major new travel restrictions on visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens, including a ban on many forms of educational and recreational travel.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that the U.S. will no longer allow the group educational and cultural trips known as “people to people” travel to the island. Those trips have been used by thousands of American citizens to visit the island even before the U.S. restored full diplomatic relations with the communist government in December 2014.

Treasury said it would also deny permission for private and corporate aircraft and boats. However, commercial airline flights appear to be unaffected and travel for university groups, academic research, journalism and professional meetings will continue to be allowed.

“It kills the people-to-people category, which is the most common way for the average American to travel to Cuba,” said Collin Laverty, head of Cuba Educational Travel, one of the largest Cuba travel companies in the U.S.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the measures are a response to what it calls Cuba’s “destabilizing role” in the Western Hemisphere, including support for the government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

“Cuba continues to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up U.S. adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes,” he said. “This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime. These actions will help to keep U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services.”

The new restrictions had been previewed by national security adviser John Bolton in an April speech in Miami to veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion but details of the changes weren’t public until Tuesday. Treasury said the sanctions would take effect on Wednesday after they are published in the Federal Register. </s> The Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed harsh new travel restrictions on visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens, including a ban on the educational and recreational trips categorized as “people-to-people” travel, which has been used by thousands of Americans even before the Obama administration loosened rules. Treasury officials also said travel permissions would be denied for private and corporate aircraft and boats, though commercial flights would continue. “Cuba continues to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up U.S. adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “It kills the people-to-people category, which is the most common way for the average American to travel to Cuba,” Collin Laverty, head of Cuba Educational Travel, one of the largest Cuba travel companies in the U.S., told the AP. </s> Just a few weeks ago, Caribbean travel expert Jennifer Carr decided to book her first-ever cruise on the adults-only Virgin Voyages to Havana, Cuba to celebrate her 40th birthday next year on the once-forbidden island.

Those plans were essentially canceled Tuesday morning when President Donald J. Trump announced that cruise lines will eventually be fully banned from visiting the island that President Barack Obama made a lot easier to travel to in March of 2016, the year the "people-to-people" program was put into effect.

Although Carr was set to be a client and not make money as an agent on this trip, the news hurts nonetheless.

"This is very disappointing because I have had the opportunity to visit Cuba myself in 2013 through the people-to-people program,” she said. “The local Cuban people were so excited at the thought of more Americans being able to visit, and now we have taken a huge step backwards. Very disappointing for the travel industry as a whole, and the lovely people in Cuba.”

The new regulations effectively wipe out the "people-to-people" program, which gave U.S. visitors, particularly group tours, a pass to travel to Cuba so long as they were taking part in an educational program aimed at teaching Americans about Cuban culture.

However, many in the industry believe there is still hope through the “support for the Cuban people” category of current exemptions for travel from the U.S. to Cuba.

According to the New York Times, that category permits individuals to travel to Cuba only if they have an itinerary "filled with meetings and visits with local business owners, artists or others. They must plan on participating in local activities and staying in a private home, instead of a hotel."

Carr put down a 20 percent deposit on the trip and, in doing so, gave herself a little hope since a grandfathering provision was announced for those who have already paid for at least part of their trip to Cuba. However, it was confirmed on Wednesday by a representative of the Cruising Lines International Association (CLIA) that cruises will not be included in the provision.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) guidelines “provides that certain group people-to-people educational travel that previously was authorized will continue to be authorized where the traveler had already completed at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodation) prior to June 5, 2019.”

In an email forwarded to TravelPulse by travel expert Stephen Scott, owner of Travel Hub 365 and an advisor with Protravel International in Chicago, Virgin Voyages wrote to agents who had clients booked on its cruises that, “We‘re disappointed to hear of the administration’s decision to significantly restrict travel activity to Cuba."

“If you have a sailor booked on any of our sailings with a stop in Havana, we wanted to let you know we’ll be reaching out to them by email tomorrow. We’ll also send you a copy to keep you informed,” according to the email. “The entire Virgin Voyages crew is working hard on changes to our voyages, and we’ll be back in touch next week with full details of Havana’s replacement.”

And that was enough to put Scott at ease for the moment.

"Virgin Voyages has been proactive in communicating with every travel advisor it works with, and that's a huge help to us because we have people asking us for updates all day," said Scott. "They were the first to communicate with me to tell me they would be on top of it. And they said they will email me when they hear something new. That is so valuable to me."

Other agents like Caitlyn Gambino, owner of Aum Journeys in Detroit, Michigan, think the news is sad because of the unique travel opportunities that will no longer be available for Americans waiting to visit a country that was off limits for so long.

“It is a disappointment,” she told TravelPulse. “A lot of my clients are interested in Cuba and have been waiting eagerly for things to clear up so they can go. There was a time there when it looked like that time would be soon, but that is now definitely not the case. It's a shame when the rest of the world has been traveling there for years and people from the United States feel like they're missing out on seeing something really beautiful.”

But while Tuesday’s announcement was disappointing for a lot of agents and consumers who planned on seeing the island, it wasn't quite unexpected.

Administration officials noted that these actions “mark a continued commitment toward implementing the National Security Presidential Memorandum signed by the President on June 16, 2017, titled “Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba.”

Jennifer Doncsecz, president of VIP Vacations, Inc. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in fact, told TravelPulse she has been telling clients since then to "sit tight" and not book any Cuba travel this summer.

“Frankly, anyone who has been following Trump's policies should have seen this coming,” said Doncsecz. “For our clients, the cruise option was always ideal as the hotel choices to travel to Cuba required our clients to be aware of subpar hotels and, because of how things were run, there was always the threat being moved to a different hotel at the drop of a hat.

"That was definitely a drawback, so the cruise option was perfect. I’m sure the cruise lines are now going to shift things, which means a lot of their itineraries are up in the air.”

But there are also agents like Carr, who expected tighter restrictions, but none that would influence the cruise lines.

“At first, I thought cruise ships wouldn’t be affected and then when the news broke that cruises would have to change their itineraries, I was really disappointed,” said Carr, a travel advisor with The Tropical Travelers in Malvern, Pennslyvania. “This was my first cruise ever and I was so excited to get a big group to join me for my 40th birthday, especially since we would have been docked in Havana for 24 hours. I’ll still be sticking to my plan and hoping the new stop on the itinerary is somewhere just as exciting.”

And she wasn’t the only travel agent whose plans of sipping Havana Club rum in Cuba took a serious hit Tuesday.

Paul Stroncek, a cruise travel specialist with Dreamlines in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was all set to board the Norwegian Sky in July and now is looking for a backup plan before agents receive what most think is inevitable at this point, an official announcement essentially canceling all calls to Cuba.

Many of the cruises to Cuba are expected to be re-routed and not canceled entirely, according to the agents TravelPulse spoke to.

"We are scrambling. I'm beyond upset. I'm mad," said Stroncek. "I had my Cuba continued-education trip planned later this year. The good news is there are other beautiful islands in the Caribbean: British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Aruba, St. Lucia and Bahamas. I'll have to make other accommodations, but am still beyond upset at this administration.”

Although Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings couldn’t confirm if his trip would be canceled or re-routed, the company did issue the following statement:

“Today, the U.S. government announced new travel restrictions to Cuba,” according to the written statement. “We are closely monitoring these recent developments and any resulting impact to cruise travel to Cuba. We will communicate to our guests and travel partners as additional information becomes available.”

The new regulations will go into place on June 5, 2019, when they are published in the Federal Register. In a statement obtained by TravelPulse, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) said Tuesday’s news will prompt the organization to “issue guidance to all members soon.”

“Given the recent growth in legal U.S. travel to Cuba, ASTA is concerned about the potential for disruption from these policy changes, especially as they relate to the operations of our cruise line, airline and hotel partners on the island," according to the statement. “ASTA continues to believe that the American people are the best ambassadors of U.S. values abroad, and should be allowed to freely travel to any destination they wish without restriction from their own government.

"Rather than shutting the door to this market 90 miles off our shores, we call on policymakers to enact legislation to do away with the statutory Cuba travel ban once and for all. While today is a setback, we will continue to advocate toward Cuba travel freedom and look forward to the day it becomes reality.”

But not every agent is bothered by the news.

In fact, George Andritsakis, an advisor with Snelgrove Travel Center in Layton, Utah, welcomed the new tightening of restrictions and told TravelPulse it won’t cost him a dime since he doesn’t send anyone there.

“Honestly, I’m all for tightening the sanctions,” he said. “I don’t book Cuba at all and haven’t really had very many people asking for it. I can see how other agents would be upset, as they made money there. But the safety factors just aren’t there for me to be comfortable selling it, or even recommending it.”

And while any Trump news tends to get people’s political juices flowing, many agents like Amanda Bisack, founder of Travelista Travels, an affiliate of the Tzell Travel Group, in Port Jefferson, New York, are putting politics aside and instead focusing on what this means for their job.

“I’ve been selling travel for five years and have had one client ever ask me about travel to Cuba," she said. "I don’t care which administration puts restrictions on travel to certain countries. If they’re doing it, then it's to protect us and I’m OK with that. I would love to travel to Cuba someday when our administration feels it's safe for us to do so.”

As for what it means for the future of U.S. travel to Cuba?

Time will tell, but it definitely doesn't look as good as it did in March of 2016. </s> An update by Global News just informed us that Donald Trump has tightened up the regulations surrounding travel to Cuba. During Barack Obama's presidency, the former government official re-established travels to Cuba via cruise ships. The latter served as America's first effort to initiate a relationship with Cuba after years of conflict. The travel option quickly went onto becoming the most popular form of U.S. travel to the island with approximately 142K people travelling this way within the first four months of the year. Such a number inflated to a 300% increase last year. The cruises offered a simple, one-way travel option to Cuba that was legal. Though, that is no more.

"Cruise ships as well as recreational and pleasure vessels are prohibited from departing the U.S. on temporary sojourn to Cuba effective tomorrow,” shared the Commerce Department with the press. The sanctions are scheduled to take place Wednesday and serve as an effort by Trump administration to halt the communist government's profit from the increased tourism. Moreover, the new restrictions only hamper Obama's prior efforts to restore normal relations between the United States and Cuba. The regulations' introduction is lead to criticism from Cuban-American communities and Congress allies. </s> Americans traveling to Cuba will be allowed to bring home more of the communist-ruled island's coveted cigars and rum under new measures announced by the U.S. government on Friday to further ease trade, travel and financial restrictions that have been in place for decades.

Cuba welcomed the steps, part of President Barack Obama's effort to make his historic opening to Cuba “irreversible” by the time he leaves office in January, but said they did not go far enough.

The latest in a series of new rules since the former Cold War foes began normalizing relations in 2014 will allow Cubans to buy certain U.S. consumer goods online, open the door for Cuban pharmaceutical companies to do business in the United States and let Cubans and Americans do joint medical research.

For American travelers, the biggest change is the removal of limits on the amount of rum and cigars they can pack in their luggage, strictly for personal use.

“You can now celebrate with Cuban rum and Cuban cigars," U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice quipped as she laid out the policy changes in a speech to a Washington think tank.

U.S. law still bans general tourism to Cuba, but the administration has used previous regulatory packages to make it easier for Americans to visit the island under 12 officially authorized categories.

The latest measures are part of an executive order on Cuba through which Obama seeks to sidestep the Republican-controlled Congress, which has resisted his call to lift Washington's economic embargo after more than 50 years.

Republican critics say Obama is making too many concessions to Cuba for too little in return, especially on human rights issues. “After two years of President Obama's Cuba policy, the Castro regime has made out like bandits,” said U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American lawmaker from Florida.

The steps allow Cuban pharmaceutical companies to apply for U.S. regulatory approval, let U.S. firms improve Cuban infrastructure for humanitarian purposes and authorize them to provide safety-related aircraft services in Cuba, where U.S. airlines are beginning regularly scheduled flights.

Also under the new rules, after docking in Cuba, some foreign ships carrying certain cargo will be permitted to travel directly to U.S. ports to load or unload freight. Until now, such vessels have been required to wait 180 days, a restriction that Cuban officials say hinders their import export trade.

Josefina Vidal, the Cuban Foreign Ministry's chief of U.S. affairs, told a news conference in Havana the measures were "positive but of a very limited nature".

“Today, I approved a Presidential Policy Directive that takes another major step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with Cuba,” Obama said in a statement.

Less than a month before the Nov. 8 presidential election, Obama said his goal was to “make our opening to Cuba irreversible.”

The latest package, the administration's sixth, is likely to be the “last significant tranche of changes” during Obama's tenure, said a senior official, who asked not to be named.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton backs the policy of rapprochement with Havana. Republican Donald Trump has vowed to roll back Obama's executive actions.

Vidal criticized Obama's directive for making it clear the U.S. aimed to “promote change in Cuba's economic, political and social system", failing to respect its sovereignty.

In March, Obama made the first visit to Havana by a U.S. president in 88 years. His trip was made possible by his breakthrough agreement with Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014 to cast aside decades of hostility that began soon after Cuba's 1959 revolution.

Since the opening, Obama has repeatedly used his executive powers to relax trade and travel restrictions, while pushing Cuba to accelerate market-style reforms and boost political and economic freedom.

“The changes announced to Cuba regulations are, by definition, significant because they are new,” said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. "Whether they will be relevant depends upon the government of Cuba's willingness to permit United States companies and institutions to engage.”

“This new directive consolidates and builds upon the changes we've already made,” Obama said. He added, however, that "challenges remain - and very real differences between our governments persist on issues of democracy and human rights.”

At the same time, the U.S. embargo against Cuba has remained in place, a major irritant in relations. Only Congress can lift the embargo, and the Republican leadership is not expected to allow such a move anytime soon. — Reuters
The United States announces new restrictions on American travel to Cuba. Effective Wednesday, travel via cruise ships or other conveyances, including private yachts or airplanes, is prohibited. Group travel under the previous "people-to-people educational" provision is also not allowed.