Cruises Could Be Big Winners In Cuba

The once-taboo island lacks tourism infrastructure. Ship operators hope to change that

“The cruise business is the only one that’s going to have a bonanza in Cuba”

- Christopher Palmeri

After President Barack Obama eased restrictions on American citizens traveling to Cuba last year, airlines raced to start service from the U.S. to 10 cities across the island. But they quickly learned that fewer passengers than expected wanted to fly to a poor nation with a paucity of first-class hotel rooms, very high prices for even modest lodgings, food shortages at restaurants, and the occasional lack of creature comforts (think toilet paper). Now another part of the travel industry figures it has the ideal solution for Cuba’s dearth of luxury: the cruise ship.

Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, the world’s three largest carriers, have added dozens of voyages to the island nation between now and 2019, betting that their floating resorts are perfectly suited to introduce tourists to the underdeveloped isle. “The airlines overestimated by a long shot how much demand there was,” says Norwegian Chief Executive Officer Frank Del Rio. “We bring our own infrastructure, all the comforts of America. The imbalance the airlines found is not at work for the cruise industry.”

The prospect of sailing to Cuba—right in the middle of the world’s largest cruising region—has had ship operators salivating for decades. Havana, with its nightclubs, cobblestone streets, cigar factories, and Hemingway hangouts, could someday be the busiest cruise destination in the Caribbean, ahead of the Bahamas and Mexico’s Cozumel, predicts Del Rio, who was born in Cuba before his family fled the island in 1961. “Havana is a brand,” he says. “Like all superstar brands, people are just naturally attracted to it.”