Travel Weekly - July 25, 2011

Arnie Weissmann:
Thoughts on Mark Travel’s
research, working for Murdoch
and learning geography. 12
DOT DELAYS NEW RULES

Richard Turen:
It’s time we stopped fighting the
Internet and technology and
instead mastered them. 48

www.travelweekly.com
Section 1 of 2

THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER OF THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
Consumer Trends
JULY 25, 2011

[ NEW PRODUCTS FROM A&K, GLOBUS ] Tour ops jumping at chance to offer Cuban itineraries

By Gay Nagle Myers

This year, we examined the research of PhoCus Wright, Mark Travel, Frommer’s, Travel Leaders, Ypartnership, Accor and Hilton as each company sought to plumb the mind of the leisure traveler. SEE PULLOUT SECTION

Think of Cuba today as a theater in which the curtain is about to go up on the first act of a performance that created quite a buzz in rehearsals a decade ago.

Abercrombie & Kent announced new Cuba programs last week, followed a day later by a similar announcement from the Globus Family of Brands.

Insight Cuba was first out of the gate in June, and according to director Tom Popper, it didn’t take long to fill its inaugural trip, which departs Miami on Aug. 11.

There are other companies already in the mix as well, and more announcements from mainstream operators are expected soon.

Fueling all these product announcements is a policy change issued by the Obama administration in January, which allows U.S.

With Canal expansion, an end to ‘post-Panamax’

Obama opens the door just
a crack. And despite govern-
ment red tape, operators
see great opportunity.

By Donna Tunney

If all goes according to plan, the classification of giant cruise ships known as post-Panamax vessels will cease to exist sometime in 2014.

Post-Panamax designates ships too large to pass through the canal. But when the canal expansion currently under way is complete, the canal will be able to accommodate all existing cruise vessels, including the largest, Oasis of the Seas, and its sister, Allure of the Seas (although with Oasis-class ships, height could still prove to be a limiting factor).

But even as the Panama Canal Authority
recently passed the halfway point in its ambi-
tious plan to expand the 100-year-old canal
and double the amount of cargo that transits
the waterway, it remained unclear if cruise
lines had much appetite for building new
itineraries around the expanded canal.

citizens to travel to Cuba to meet with local Cubans in the “people-to-people” category of educational and cultural travel.

The administration expanded the definition of group travel to Cuba beyond strictly religious, educational, humanitarian and cultural travel to include U.S. travelers who want to meet and share experiences with local Cubans in all walks of life.

The people-to-people programs were popular during the final years of the Clinton administration, but they were discontinued in 2004 by President George W. Bush.

Obama reversed Bush’s decision this year, serving to heighten interest in travel to Cuba by all sorts of groups and triggering numerous applications for people-to-people travel licenses from the U.S. government.