8 Business View Caribbean - Dec 2014
Opening
Lines
Barry Liben, chief executive officer of the Travel Lead-
ers Group, reacted positively to the joint announcement
from Washington, D.C. and Havana that the United
States and Cuba will take steps toward normalizing rela-
tions that have been virtually non-existent for decades.
“Travel Leaders Group applauds the move by the U.S.
government to begin the process of normalizing rela-
tions with Cuba,” Liben said. “Even though freedom of
movement has been one of our most cherished rights
as Americans, Cuba has been strictly off-limits to most
of us for over 50 years. We believe that there is no
greater way for Americans to break down barriers than
through their unimpeded travel, where we collectively
can exchange in a free flow of ideas.
“Across Travel Leaders Group, we’ve already been send-
ing a growing number of Americans to Cuba under fed-
erally-licensed people-to-people exchange programs.
In fact, this year alone, we’ve sent many of our travel
agent professionals to Cuba through this innovative pro-
gram. Our hope is that Americans will now enjoy sub-
stantially more opportunities to act as ambassadors for
their country by visiting Cuba.”
Travel Leaders Group is the largest traditional travel
agency company in North America, with more than $20
billion in annual sales through its more than 6,500
wholly-owned, franchised and member agencies.
Earlier this year, in the wake of Travel Leaders’ (Fran-
chise Division) special person-to-person journey to Cuba
with Globus family of brands, it polled 246 travel lead-
ers agents to learn whether they had clients expressing
interest in traveling to Cuba. A majority (55.3 percent)
of agents have had clients expressing interest with 11
percent of them already having been booked for Cuba.
Still, 44.7 percent said they didn’t have any clients ex-
pressing interest.
The poll was conducted from March 25 to April 25,
2014.
Travel Leaders Group Applauds
U.S. Move toward Cuba
