Travel in Cuba

Out in a flat plain of reddish sand against a wide blue sky, a group of men set up a baseball field. The home base is made from a green plastic crate propped on a tire, and the players stand in an outfield, stark figures against an expansive horizon. Spanish phrases interlay the general chitchat in Arabic. The batter crouches, ready for the ball, as the pitcher pivots his leg to throw. His ball strikes the ground far ahead of the plate, and the batter stands straight as if to say, ‘Come on? Really?’

Nothing captures the Indian Ocean quite like rum — and it has a long history in the region. Sugarcane, the key ingredient, has been cultivated for the fiery brew in India for thousands of years, and the spirit has been distilled in Réunion and Mauritius for centuries. Today, the local rum industry is still small, but quality is improving all the time with many producers drawing the eyes of the world.      

The passenger who this week went overboard from the largest cruise ship in the world — Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas — is a 19-year-old college student who was vacationing with his friends, his sister told Insider. 

"Oscar, Oscar, Oscar" are three words you don't want to hear on a cruise ship.

Hurricane Idalia is expected to make landfall in Florida early Wednesday, potentially leading to power outages, wind damage and flooding as it moves inland.

After bringing strong winds and flooding to Cuba as a tropical storm, Idalia became a Category 1 hurricane early Tuesday morning, fueled by unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO, spoke at the IATA World Financial Symposium in Barcelona, where he noted that aviation delivers enormous value to the global economy, contributing some $2.4 trillion to GDP, carrying over a third of world trade by value and supporting some 58 million jobs including aviation-related tourism. Historically, however, aviation has not had an equivalent level of success creating value for its equity investors. Tyler highlighted four areas where industry stakeholders have opportunities to set a path toward long-term financial sustainability: Smarter Regulation; Rebalancing the Value Chain; Innovation; and Efficient Processes.

For the first time, the industry on average will be creating value for its equity investors. Now, for any other industry, earning the cost of capital is the absolute minimum performance expected. So we should not feel the need to apologize for achieving a 4% net profit margin. I suspect future investors will demand more than that after so many years of the destruction of shareholder value!

A new law that just passed in Spain related to the long reign of former dictator Francisco Franco will allow more Spanish descendants to apply for citizenship. This is useful for immigrants residing in the country. And for the diaspora, it could mean longer trips to Europe without need for a visa. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, January 3, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The Obama administration approved U.S. educational and people-to-people travel to Cuba in 2015, but a U.S. federal judge in Florida last week ordered four major cruise lines to pay more than $400 million in damages plus legal fees to a U.S. company that ran the port in Havana until it was confiscated after the Cuban revolution of 1959.

British birdwatcher Harriet Babeo arrived at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs earlier this week and promptly racked up 80 species for her list including the world’s smallest hummingbird and the elusive red, white and blue Cuban trogon, rarities found only the island.

Meliá Hotels International is Spain’s largest hotel and resort operator, aiming to grow its portfolio across the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and Asia Pacific by 40 percent in the next three years. The Mallorca-based company, controlled by the Escarrer family, is open to selling a stake to a world player like Hyatt or Marriott. But its strategy in recent years could set it up to go it alone for much longer.

A giant Hotels.com advert on the side of one of the oldest, mix-used buildings in downtown Los Angeles is hard to miss.

China has lifted pandemic-era restrictions on group tours for more countries, including key markets such as the United States, Japan, South Korea and Australia in a potential boon for their tourism industries.

Although it’s still technically summer for another month, JetBlue has us already dreaming about fall. The carrier announced its “Big Fall Sale” today, with fares as low as $39 one way. But you’ll have to hurry—the discounted fares are only available until the end of Thursday, August 24.

It's a city that's famously blustery, hilly, and wet—but a common refrain among Wellingtonians is that you can’t beat Wellington on a good day. And they have a point: New Zealand’s compact capital is a picturesque city, curled around a sparkling harbor notched into the very bottom of the North Island. Emerald hills rise around the center, and bright, weatherboard villas spill down their steep slopes to meet the waterfront.

Grand Cayman is the largest and westernmost of the Cayman Islands. Its proximity to Central America, Cuba, and Jamaica attracts a multitude of cultures. In fact, 143 nations are represented in a population that recently topped the 69,000 mark. That diversity is evident in Caymanian culture and in the incredible food, highlighted annually at the Taste of Cayman food festival.

In the Gilded Age, Boston and New York grandees flocked to western Massachusetts. They built scores of homes called Berkshire Cottages that were, in fact, cottages in name only. Many of these impressive villas and grand estates are thankfully still there, some thriving under new guises.

I have always found packing for trips stressful.

Love and marriage may be the ultimate gift, but just beyond those cherished vows and celebratory toasts comes the unforgettable honeymoon. Unlike the nuptials themselves, the honeymoon is intimate; a private dessert for two. It’s chapter one of a love story. Better still, it’s the newlyweds’ first chance to voyage together in wedded harmony. For LGBTQ+ couples, planning a romantic honeymoon comes with familiar choices—beach or city, resort or B&B, adventure or light recreation—plus considerations about feeling welcome as well as safe.