Obama's Travel Policy is Bailing Out Castro

The following are excerpts from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Working Paper, "Recession and Policy Transmission to Latin American Tourism: Does Expanded Travel to Cuba Offset Crisis Spillovers?":

- The Cuban authorities are poised to benefit from travel for U.S. visitors (and particularly, family travel) in the wake of the 2009 policy changes. This category of tourist has surpassed that of any individual European country to become the second most important source arriving to Cuba after Canada.

- [Family travel] costs in the case of Cuba are five to ten times those in other countries.

- E.g., passport consular fees to Cuba are US$670 for six years; Argentina US$60 for five years, Bolivia at US$85 for six years, Brazil at US$80 for five years, Chile at US$103 for five years, Colombia at US$117 for 10 years, Costa Rica at US$31 for six years, Dominica Republic at US$60 for six years, Ecuador at US$110 for six years, El Salvador at US$60 for five years, Guatemala at US$65 for five years, Honduras at US$75 for ten years, Mexico at US$101 for six years, Nicaragua at US$50 for five years, Panama at US$54 for five years , Peru at US$35 for five years, Uruguay at US$84 for five years and Venezuela at US$80 for five years. Jamaica does not require visas for US travelers up to 180 days.

- The impact of a natural experiment resulting from policy driven changes in travel costs from the United States to Cuba is also estimated. The results suggest that for Cuba, the loosening of travel restrictions in 2009 helped offset the decline in arrivals from the global financial crisis—a potentially significant external countercyclical source of growth. Capitalizing fully on this countercyclical external demand would suggest revising policies to lower travel costs for persons under U.S. jurisdiction traveling to Cuba, and in particular "family" travel, which are currently a multiple of the costs to travel elsewhere in the region.