Visiting Cuba is an act of solidarity
Campaign News | Monday, 18 August 2025
Trinidad on Cuba's southern coast is one of the island's nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites and close to some of Cuba's best beaches
Under Marco Rubio the US State Department has ramped up its “maximum pressure” policy to attack the Cuban economy on every front.
Cuba has been returned to the State Sponsor of Terrorism list, Trump’s 2017 presidential memorandum reactivated, the list of restricted Cuban entities expanded, Western Union forced to suspend remittance operations in Cuba, and intense pressure placed on countries to end agreements with Cuba over medical brigades. All have contributed to unprecedented shortages in medicines, food and fuel causing daily hardships for every Cuban family.
Rubio’s mission to restore “a tough US-Cuba policy” is also targeting tourism – a vital source of hard currency and employment for the island.
The threats of huge fines and sanctions from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has scared some international travel operators away. Captivating Cuba, which was forced to close in 2024, cited “complexities” including “the fact that the majority of UK banks restrict bank transfer payments direct to Cuba, due to US sanctions.”
US intervention has led to Expedia recently following Booking.com in removing all properties in Cuba on its site, and Airbnb only allowing Cuban hosts to receive payments to foreign bank accounts. The US government has also tightened restrictions on licences for educational travel for its own citizens. This is in addition to forcing Europeans who have visited Cuba and wish to travel to the US to apply for full US visas rather than an online ESTA.
The intentions behind these measures are obvious: to sabotage Cuba’s tourism industry, cut a critical source of hard currency, suffocate the economy, and destabilise the country.
Despite this, Cuba is still easy to visit and an amazing holiday destination, regularly being nominated in tourism awards. Neither does travel to Cuba bar you from future travel to the US.
The Cuba Solidarity Campaign has taken thousands of people to Cuba, on brigades, study tours, bespoke group tours and union delegations. For many participants, these tours are both the “trip of a lifetime” and “life-changing.”
CSC tours offer the opportunity to experience Cuba’s history and culture, and meet and exchange with its wonderful people. They provide a unique programme of social and political visits to schools, hospitals and institutions not available to everyday tourists, including meetings with the representatives of mass organisations such as trade unions and the Federation of Cuban Women. Our tours also deliver much-needed material aid directly to schools and hospitals and bring a message of solidarity from Britain.
At a time when the US government is doing all that it can to wreck tourism to Cuba, visiting is one of the most direct and helpful ways to break the blockade and support the Cuban people.
Make your next holiday an act of solidarity with Cuba. Visit cuba-solidarity.org.uk/tours/ or contact CSC's national office on 0207 490 5715
