Excerpt from Reuters | Aug. 23, 2018
Cuba is at a Level 2 Advisory – similar to UK, France and Italy.
The United States on Thursday revised its travel advisory on Cuba to “exercise increased caution,” from “reconsider travel,” a move that some in the tourism sector hope could help reverse a decline in American visitors to the Caribbean island.
The U.S. State Department had warned its citizens last year not to visit the country because of a spate of still unexplained illnesses among its embassy personnel in Havana.
The new U.S. travel advisory acknowledges, however, that these so-called “attacks” seemed to target those personnel and not private citizens, and therefore simply advises travelers to “exercise increased caution in Cuba.”
Cuba and many analysts have branded the warning on travel to the Communist-run island as politically motivated. Republican U.S. President Donald Trump had announced in 2017 he would partially roll back a detente with Havana by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.
The State Department reported similar illnesses this year among U.S. Embassy staff in China, but did not issue a warning on travel to that country.
The warning on travel to Cuba along with tighter restrictions issued last year that made it more difficult for Americans to travel there independently have dampened a recent boom in U.S. visitors to the island. Read More