work in the island nation
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
By Martha Brannigan, McClatchy Newspapers
MIAMI -- Travelers heading to Cuba will need cash -- and a good bit of it.
Visitors suffer sticker shock at the island's lofty prices almost as
fast as they notice Havana's colonial architecture.
Most of the basic needs of travelers -- hotels, rental cars and
restaurants -- are expensive compared to other Latin American countries.
However, there are alternatives for traveling on the cheap, such as
casas particulares, private homes whose owners have government
permission to rent rooms to visitors.
Last week the Obama administration lifted restrictions on travel to Cuba
by Cuban Americans as well as the limits on remittances they send to
their families there, a move that is expected to prompt many South
Floridians with family ties to make more frequent trips.
Cuba may be just across the Florida Straits, but it's a world away: U.S.
credit cards and debit cards won't work on the Communist island; neither
will U.S. travelers' checks, so travelers should take plenty of cash.
Cuba has two currencies: the Cuban peso, known as moneda nacional, which
Cubans typically get as salaries and use in routine purchases; and the
Cuban convertible peso, which is called the CUC (pronounced kook) and
informally known as the chavito by Cubans on the island.
A Cuban convertible peso is worth 24 Cuban pesos, though most travelers
have little use for the latter.
Cuba officially sets the value of the CUC at $1.08, but the currency
exchanges typically charge a rate of $1.12 for one CUC.
On top of that, the Cuban government imposes a 10 percent surcharge to
exchange dollars, which in effect makes $1 worth 0.804 CUCs at the
currency exchanges or cambios. Conversely, it costs about $1.24 to get a
CUC after all is said and done.
The surcharge means travelers are better off switching dollars for
euros, Canadian dollars or Swiss francs before leaving the United
States. Those currencies don't get hit with the extra 10 percent fee.
"If you take dollars down, they get you in essence twice," says John S.
Kavulich, senior policy advisor to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council, a New York-based group that tracks the Cuban economy. "Most
people use Canadian dollars or euros."
CADECA, the government-run currency exchange, has locations throughout
Cuban cities and towns for converting foreign money to pesos.
Hotels and other tourist haunts will also change money, but they give
even worse exchange rates.
For a decade, from 1994 to 2004, the U.S. dollar circulated on the
island as an uber currency that could be used in so-called dollar shops
that sold consumer goods such as electronics, clothes, toys and food
items not available elsewhere.
But in 2004, the Cuban government banned the use of U.S. dollars for
most transactions in response to a Bush administration move tightening
remittances to Cuba. Bush limited travel to once every three years for
Cuban Americans and restricted remittances to $300 quarterly to a
specific relative.
That was when the Cuban government, as part of a "de-dollarization,"
instituted the 10 percent surcharge on converting U.S. dollars to Cuban
convertible pesos.
The surcharge also applies to dollar-based remittances to family members
on the island -- something U.S officials hope Cuba will change in
response to the Obama administration's new policy.
At a White House briefing last week, Dan Restrepo, special assistant to
the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said
the United States expects Cuba to "stop charging the usurious fees that
it does on these remittances."
Most people visit Cuba because of family ties, curiosity, business or
cut-rate prices at seaside resorts, so the island isn't trying very hard
to compete with other spots in the Caribbean.
"Business travelers are the proverbial bread and butter of revenue
streams," Kavulich says. "I tell people if you think you're going to
spend $200 a day, take $400, because it's expensive, and generally
you're going to want to do something for someone."
First published on May 13, 2009 at 12:00 am
Going to Cuba? Take plenty of cash, because U.S. credit cards will not
work in the island nation (14 May 2009)
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