Cuba tourism inquiries up since order to reestablish ties

Everybody wants to go to Cuba.

Travel agencies in the city and New Jersey say interest in trips to the formerly forbidden country has skyrocketed since President Obama’s historic order to reestablish ties with the Communist nation.

Bob Guild, vice president of Marazul travel agency, said he arrived at work to hundreds of emails from Americans hoping to visit the hottest travel destination of the year.

“It was everything from a person wanting to hop on a plane next week to a couple hoping to plan their honeymoon,” said Guild, who has worked for the company specializing in travel to Cuba for 35 years. “Our phones have been flooded.”

It was the same story at Isram World of Travel, which runs tours of Cuba. “There has been a tremendous spike in travel interest,” said Executive Vice President Arthur Berman.

New regulations that went into effect Friday make it easier for an enterprising traveler to self-certify a Cuba visit as serving one of the now-permitted purposes, including journalism, religion, cultural exchange, sports, education or family reunion.

The vast majority of companies running charter flights to Cuba — as of now the only direct way to reach the island nation — will probably require passengers to sign a document declaring the purpose of their trip.

For the immediate future, getting to Havana won’t be much easier — most charter flights are booked through March, as are hotels.

“Americans think they can just go to the airport, hop on a plane and fly to Cuba, which they are not going to (be able) to do for a long time to come,” said Berman.

Americans will continue to need to buy a Cuban visa to enter the country — an easy process for a traveler who tells Cuban customs at Havana airport the visit is strictly for tourism.

It’s unclear how aggressively U.S. Customs will ensure that travelers fall into the permitted categories when they return. In theory, violators face heavy fines and even prison time.

“If a Customs guy asks you to show an itinerary and all you can think to tell him is that you were sitting on the beach, that’s not going to be good for you,” said Jim Friedlander, president of Academic Arrangements Abroad, where interest in trips to Cuba has doubled in the last month.

The new rules will be a boon for those charter companies, which typically run organized tours. The pioneering gringos who are part of the first wave of travelers to Cuba shouldn’t expect too many creature comforts.

“Cuba today is not ready for mass tourism,” Berman said. “There’s no hotels, no infrastructure, there’s not enough buses, not enough guides.”

One option for a place to crash are casas particulares , in which Cubans rent out a room or floor of their home. That type of encounter is exactly what the Obama administration wants.

Placing a strain on Cuba’s infrastructure is part of the plan.

“The hotels aren’t going to be able to handle it,” a U.S. official told the Associated Press. “You’re going to see a spillover into the private sector, which is a good thing.”