Skift Take
The tour companies that have been guiding U.S. tourists through Cuba up to now will eventually evolve or go away, but right now when restaurants are full and beds are, too, they may be more valuable than ever.
Individual U.S. travelers can go to Cuba, though many U.S.-based tour operators — even those helping organize individual travel — say going solo spells disaster.
This milestone, announced last month, allows U.S. travelers to forgo people-to-people group tours, those approved by the U.S. government that meet restrictions for American travel to Cuba.
President Obama began relaxing rules for to travel in Cuba in 2011 and momentum has been building since then to open up individual tourism for Americans. Under the looser restrictions, people-to-people activities such as seminars and cultural meetings with local entrepreneurs are still required. And while U.S. travelers don't legally need a tour guide by their sides, individual travel in Cuba creates a catch-22 for Americans, at least until all restrictions are lifted. Many of the people-to-people activities are exclusively offered to tour operators who've built relationships and trust with Cuban businesses and cultural organizations. Without a guide many U.S. travelers likely wouldn't find these people or get meetings with them, making it more difficult to justify their trips to the U.S. state department.
"A lot of positive things have come out of the mandatory cultural restrictions," said David Lee, owner of Cultural Cuba, which leads groups of fewer than 12 people from the U.S. to Cuba. "I've done several 'guys trips' and these trips have contained other things that no other guys trip would have done. Usually with guys trips, their main concern is trying Cuban cigars and rum. But, most of my clients end up saying these people-to-people activities are the most memorable things they did in Cuba."
"It's hard to get a bunch of guys to sit in a room for an hour and listen to a lecture during their vacation. But one time we met with a key renovator who's renovating Old Havana, this guy is fascinating and it changed the whole idea of what my clients were thinking this would be. They were totally
