CTS protests Cuban travel warning
US travel agent Cuba Travel Services (CTS) has responded to the US State Department’s recent travel warning issued for Cuba.
After a number of attacks on US Embassy employees over the last few months, the US State Department issued a travel warning advising US citizens not to visit the country, as well as withdrawing all non-emergency US embassy staff from the country. The Embassy has said that it will ‘aggressively investigate’ these attacks and is working with Cuban authorities to find out the cause.
CTS has said, however, that it believes that the attacks do not pose any danger to those visiting Cuba for leisure reasons, and that none of the 600,000 US citizens that visited in 2016, nor the 500,000 that have visited this year, were affected by similar incidents.
“Cuba remains one of the safest destinations in the world for American travellers,” said Michael Zuccato, general manager of CTS. “Safearound.com independently assesses the risk of travel for over 100 cities around the world and has determined ‘Cuba is generally a safe country with almost no violent crimes, organised gang culture, teenage delinquency, drugs or dangerous zones.’”
CTS said that it tracks and assesses the State Department travel warnings, but it believes that the blanket warning that has been put on the entire country is unrepresentative. American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines and JetBlue are all planning to operate their normal services to and from Cuba.
“Cuba Travel Services regularly conducts thorough and comprehensive inspections of its select hotels and excursions in efforts to ensure a safe, secure and rewarding experience for our travelers,” added Zuccato. “Just last week an additional inspection was completed in Havana (post Hurricane Irma) and the services were certified safe for travellers.”