Author Topic: Can Cuba cope with an onslaught of Americans?  (Read 978 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline DixieBelle

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12143
  • Reputation: +512/-49
  • Still looking for my pony.....
Can Cuba cope with an onslaught of Americans?
« on: April 13, 2009, 09:22:04 PM »
Quote
HAVANA – A push in Congress to do away with U.S. travel bans on Cuba could set off a flood of American visitors to the long-forbidden island.

But many wonder if a country where foreigners have long complained about lousy food, sluggish service and iffy infrastructure is ready for an onslaught of Americans unseen since the days of Meyer Lansky and Al Capone.

Cuba has about as many hotel rooms as Detroit and most are already full of Canadians and Europeans. Experts say droves of Americans could drive up prices, unleash calls for more flights and cruises than Cuba can handle and force the government to tighten visa restrictions to regulate the stampede.

SNIP

Even at top Cuban resorts, it is often hard to get amenities as basic as an extra roll of toilet paper. Comforts including apples, french fries and bottled beer are sometimes scarce — not to mention perks like in-room coffee-makers or wireless Internet access.

And, as in Eastern Europe in the 1970s, international tourists complain about sub-par food and service.

"You have maybe five hotels that you could consider decent enough for Americans and their standards, but if they are already running at 60-70 percent occupancy during high season, where are all these new people going to stay?" asked John Kavulich, senior policy adviser for the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York.

Many travelers bypass hotels for rented rooms in Cuban homes. But the government does not allow those offering home-stays to rent more than two rooms, and few are hopeful those rules will be eased, no matter what happens to the U.S. travel ban.

"More demand won't mean anything unless the government changes things," said Concha Perez, who offers rooms in her home in Havana's Plaza de la Revolution district.

SNIP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/travel_brief_cuba_american_tourism

Who wants to set up that paypal account to send the DUmmies?  :evillaugh:
I can see November 2 from my house!!!

Spread my work ethic, not my wealth.

Forget change, bring back common sense.
-------------------------------------------------

No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle

Offline JohnnyReb

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 32063
  • Reputation: +1998/-134
Re: Can Cuba cope with an onslaught of Americans?
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2009, 07:27:37 AM »
"Can Cuba cope with an onslaught of Americans?" ......

The better question would be, "Can DUmmies cope with the onslaught of truth that will be coming out of Cuba?"
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."  Stalin