Potentially ending a 50 year ban on open travel to and from the US and Cuba, President Barrack Obama has followed through on plans to allow students, religious and cultural groups to travel to the island country. Regulations on the transfer of money have also been eased.

While the new guidelines as to who is and is not allowed between the countries will not come into affect for a few weeks, the move adds to the already promising prospects for Cuban tourism – just under half a million Americans visited travelled there in 2009, representing a fivefold increase in visitor numbers in just one year. The surge in travellers came following Obama’s allowance of people with family in Cuba to travel there freely.

Ordinary tourists are still prohibited from making trips, but the new revisions have returned visitor numbers to what they were before the Cuban Revolution.

The White House has issued a statement revealing that there is so far no intention to remove the 1962 economical embargo imposed on Cuba, but the recent move is designed at providing greater interpersonal contact. It was also revealed that an increased number of US airports will be permitted to run charter flights once the new rules come into effect. Travel companies have expressed a keen interest in running tours to the country.

Reported by Sam Doving.

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