In early April 2009, President Obama began allowing American telecommunications firms to start providing services to Cuba, and he also lifted restrictions on family ties to the island.  Now with no limits on family travel and money transfers by Cubans in the United States to their homeland, there is hope that travel restrictions for all will soon be lifted.

As of right now, the bans on commercial trade have not been lifted and there are some doubts as to whether Cuba would be able to handle thousands of U.S. tourists coming into their country.  The capital of Cuba, Havana, is just over 200 miles away from Miami.  Miami is the location of two of the world's largest cruise ship operators; Royal Caribbean and Carnival.  A port in Cuba would mean a boom in business for these operators.  They could offer new trips, with minimal fuel costs.  European cruise operators have been offering trips to Cuba for years now, and send approximately 2 million tourists to the island each year.

Cruise lines will most likely benefit first because it can take years to build up resort hotels on shore, but there are even questions on the feasibility of that.  While docking in Havana, there may not be enough of an area for 2000 passengers to go into town and eat lunch.

Currently, there is no idea of the demand for air travel from the United States to Cuba.  Obama has directed the government to start looking into sending regularly scheduled commercial flights to Cuba (currently it is limited to charter flights).  The flights would most likely be leaving out of Miami and other East Coast cities.