Skift Take
No surprises here: there's still American interest in Cuba and U.S. travelers will begin trickling into the island more than ever before, but it doesn't look like we'll see the pressure hose turned on any time soon.
Americans now have fewer barriers to a trip to Cuba, but according to search data and surveys from multiple companies this has failed to spark a surge of interest in vacations on the island.
Other Caribbean islands can rest easy -- at least for now -- as travel data about online searches has not revealed lost market share to Cuba.
American travelers showed higher than average interest in Cuba after the Obama administration announced in December a thaw in relations that included reestablishing the American Embassy in Havana. Obama then relaxed the American travel ban in January, which drove another small uptick in interest.
But the upswing in Americans' curiosity about traveling to Cuba was not sustained. This is not necessarily surprising at this point because there has been neither a significant increase in the number of direct flights available (with few exceptions), nor a new, easy way to book travel or hotels online.
An MMGY U.S. survey conducted between January 22 to 29 found 19% of respondents would consider a Cuban vacation during the next two years. Millennials (27%) had the highest percentage of favorable responses to a Cuba vacation followed by Generation Xers (24%). Whether that number is encouraging news for tour operators and airlines working to establish tours and service to t
