Introduction to Central Cuba (revised)

A Visit to Central Provinces for Universities and

Others Interested in a Changing Cuba

June 10-20/22, 2013

Organized by the Fund for Reconciliation and Development.

Led by executive director John McAuliff

(Revised 5/30; Sequence and events subject to change)

(Sequence and events subject to change)

Our people to people license covers anyone with a serious desire to participate, including spouses, trustees and third party providers.

Participation can begin on June 10 in Cienfuegos, or on June 14 in Cienfuegos.

1) Monday June 10

Fly from Miami to Cienfuegos (Check in by 1:30 p.m.)

5.30 PM Estimated flight arrival with CTS

6.30 PM Check In at the Hotel Jagua

7.00 PM Departure for Canticus Movus Choral group

8.30 PM Dinner* at Yacht Club

2)  Tuesday June 11

9.30 AM University of Cienfuegos "Carlos Rafael Rodríguez"

12.30 PM Lunch* at Palacio Valle with professors and staff

2.00 PM Visit city center and theater with the director of the conservation and restoration office

3.00 PM Studio Gallery of the Graphic Society

6.00 PM Dinner* at private restaurant Finca Los Colorados 

3)  Wednesday June 12

8.00 AM Depart to Trinidad, a UNESCO World Heritage City

10.30 AM Meet with historian’s office and Santander family of pottery makers

12.30 PM Lunch*at Plaza Mayor

Exploration of Trinidad

4.00 PM Check in at Hotel Las Cuevas

Dinner at Hotel

Preview musical performances and other potential student activities, including a disco in a cave (Las Cuevas)

4)  Thursday June 13

8.00 AM Drive to Sancti Spiritus

10.30 AM Fundacion Nunez Jimenez (service learning for international students, permaculture organic farm training and research project)

12.30 PM Lunch* at Meson de la Plaza with representative of Fundacion

2.00 PM Centro Universitario de Sancti Spiritus (“Martí Péres”)

4.00 Check in at Hostal El Rijo

8.00 PM Dinner* at the Hotel with university professors and staff.

5)  Friday June 14

8.00 AM Drive to Santa Clara

Lunch* at La Concha restaurant

2.00 PM Central University of Las Villas (“Marta Abreu”)

4.00 Check In at Hotel Los Caneyes

8.00 PM Dinner* with professors and staff at Santa Rosalia Restaurant

6) Saturday June 15

9.30 AM Che Guevara memorial

10.30 AM Drive to Cardenas

1.00 PM Lunch at and meet with Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue 

Continue to Varadero

4.00 PM Check in Hotel Meliá Varadero All Inclusive

7)  Sunday June 16

Reflection on program to date

Visit marina project

Lunch at the Hotel

Matanzas

2.00 PM Fortress and slavery museum

Return to Varadero

8)  Monday June 17

10.00 AM University of Matanzas "Camilo Cienfuegos”

12.30 PM Lunch* at Hotel Velasco with professors and staff

Ediciones Vigía (handmade books)

If time permits, stop at Cojimar, view Hemingway memorial

4:30 PM Visit Organoponico Vivero Alamar (service learning opportunity) 

Dinner*  

8.30 PM Witness the Cannon Firing Ceremony at San Carlos de la Cabaña Castle

Check in Melia Cohiba Hotel

9) Tuesday June 18

9.30 AM  [Ministry of Higher Education, University of Havana]

12 noon Lunch at fast food restaurant (La Pachanga?)--pay on own  

Walking tour of La Rampa, Copelia Ice Cream Palace, Hotel

2.00 PM Regla AfroCuban church; presentation on syncretism with Santaria by curator Raisa Forguera at the municipal museum  

Performance of music and dance of AfroCuban religions by Nsila cheche

Ferry across Havana Bay

Artisans market

7:30 PM Dinner discussion of bilateral relations and changes in Cuba with Jose Viera, former First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and retired lawyer, at paladar Atelier

10) Wednesday June 19

8.00 AM Discussion of social change and markets with Rafael Hernandez, editor of Temas

 [Specialized university meetings]

12.30 PM Lunch with Mark Frank, correspondent for Reuters and the Financial Times; author of Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana

2.30 PM Visit the scale model of Habana Vieja

Walking tour of Habana Vieja

[Additional specialized university meetings may be substituted for the Habana Vieja program]

8.00 PM Dinner* with educational and cultural exchange staff of US Interests Section (invited) at  Federation of Culinary Associations teaching restaurant Arte Chef, including mojito making lesson

Optional Habana Café cabaret show at Melia Cohiba Hotel ($5 CUC) or Jazz Café ($10)

  

11) Thursday   6/20

Morning departure for Miami, arrive 12:30 pm (allow 3 hours before next flight)

 * meals included in program

We strongly recommend registration and payment of tax deductible donation to FfRD of $300 as soon as possible to confirm air tickets.  Absolute deadline for registration and donation is noon June 3.  Balance of payment will be in cash on arrival in Cuba.

For the full program, 6/10-20, the cost on arrival is $2915 (single supplement $325).   For abbreviated program beginning in Santa Clara on June 14, the cost on arrival is $1815 (single supplement $225). Participants will pay directly for flights from origin point to Cuba.  For further information and registration form, contact John McAuliff, director@ffrd.org, 917-859-9025.  

*************************************

Supplemental program under development, costs shared 

Visit ICAIC  (Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos)

Finca Vijia, home of Ernest Hemingway

12) Friday   6/21

Oficina Santiago Alvarez

Fuster Gallery and Community Project

National Museum of Art

Dinner at Teatro El Cabildo with musicologist Tony Pinelli and Lourdes Diaz

Opera de la Calle at Teatro El Cabildo, meet with creator Ulises Aquino

13)  Saturday   6/22

Depart Havana (check in 10:00 am, arrive Miami 1:30 pm)

**************************************

On request, an effort will be made to arrange alternative appointments at specialized universities in the Havana area (list below) on Wednesday June 19. Personal payment of taxi fares may be required.

Universities in Havana area under Ministry of Higher Education

____ Universidad de Habana
____ Universidad de Ciencias Informaticas
____ Polytechnic Institute "Jose A. Echeverria" (CUJAE)
____ Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agricolas (INCA)
____ Universidad Agraria de la Habana
____ Instituto Superior de Diseno

Other Universities and Educational Organizations in Havana area

____ Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas Enrique Jose Varona
____ Universidad de las Artes (ISA)
____ La Escuela de la Medicina Veterinaria
____ Universidad de Ciencias de la Cultura Fisica y el Deporte "Manuel Fajardo"
____ Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de la Habana
____ Escuela Latinamericana de Medicina
____ Centro de Ingenieria Genetica y Biotecnologia
____ Centro Nacional de Rehabilitacion "Julio Diaz"
____ Acuario Nacional Cuba

North Palm Beach County Chamber to offer summer trip to Cuba

Posted: 2:49 p.m. Monday, May 20, 2013

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BY JODIE WAGNER - PALM BEACH POST STAFF WRITER

JUPITER — 

Northern Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce members and local residents will be among the few Americans to travel to Cuba this summer as part of the Chamber’s Discover Cuba program.

The seven-night trip, which departs Aug. 2, provides travelers the opportunity to gain a new perspective on Cuba’s history, culture and cuisine through cultural interactions and exchanges.

“We’re excited to be able to offer this trip,” said Hannah Sosa, the chamber’s director of communications and special events. “A family or a group of friends on their own wouldn’t be able to go.”

The Northern Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce, a Jupiter-based nonprofit organization with more than 800 members, secured the proper visas in order take a group of travelers to Cuba, Sosa said.

U.S. citizens are permitted to travel legally to Cuba, with some limitations.

Participants will tour a variety of historical landmarks including the Museum of the Revolution and Ernest Hemingway’s farm, Finca La Vigia.

They also will visit the San Jose Craft Market and Art Center, attend a song and dance revue at the Tropicana Club in Havana and visit the countryside of the Vinales Valley, where they will tour a cigar factory, tobacco farm and family farmhouse. Also on the itinerary is a tour of the Bocoy Rum Factory and a visit to the National Museum of Fine Arts.

“This is an art and cultural trip,” Sosa said. “We wanted the chamber and the community to be able to go together.”

A second tour departs Oct. 6. Additional dates will be available in 2014.

Tour cost is $3,599 per person for Chamber members and $3,799 per person for non-members, based on double occupancy.

The cost includes round-trip airfare from Miami, seven nights of first-class hotel accommodations, 16 meals, professional tour escort, baggage handling, Cuban travel visa, Cuban medical insurance, sightseeing and admission to attractions.

The Discover Cuba program is operated by Premier World Discovery and Chamber Explorations.

The Chamber will host an informational presentation on the program at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Palm Beach State College’s Palm Beach Gardens campus, Room AD207, 3160 PGA Blvd.

For information, contact Jane Pike at 561-746-7111 or jane@npbchamber.com, or visit www.npbchamber.com/discovercuba.

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/local/north-palm-beach-county-chamber-to-offer-summer-tr/nXxPy/?icmp=pbp_internallink_textlink_apr2013_pbpstubtomypbp_launch

Three more companies get U.S. approval to offer Cuba travel

By Gay Nagle Myers

Three more companies have survived a long and challenging trek through the government's bureaucratic maze to launch federally licensed people-to-people educational travel to Cuba this summer.

The companies are Central Holidays, the Globus Family of Brands and Michigan-based Other Cuban Journeys.

For Central Holidays, a mainstay tour operator to Europe since 1972, the foray into a destination on this side of the Atlantic "is a very big deal," said CEO Gianni Miradoli.

"We were getting requests from our clients who have traveled on our Europe group tours," Miradoli said. "They wanted to go to Cuba with us. We gave it a lot of thought and decided to take the plunge."

The operator partnered with California-based Premier World Discovery/Chamber Explorations, which was granted a license in early April by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to operate the people-to-people cultural exchange programs.

This arrangement was created as a way for the federal government to limit travel to Cuba to low-key educational exchanges while the half-century-old Cuban trade embargo remains in effect. Agents who send clients to the operator are paid a referral fee as opposed to a commission.

Central Holidays' program, announced April 22, offers 19 departures from Aug. 9 through Dec. 12.

"Within four days, we had sold out one of our October departures," Miradoli said. "Adding Cuba to our destination offerings allows us to further cater to our repeat customers who want to explore the world in the signature Central Holidays way."

With all people-to-people programs, the tour operator handles the initial inquiries from agents and customers, and the licensee handles all payments, booking arrangements and financial transactions.

Agents receive a referral fee from the operator for directing clients to the program.

Central Holidays currently offers an eight-day Discover Cuba itinerary with a full schedule of activities in and around Havana. Tour participants meet with locals, artists and dancers during the trip.

The price of $3,899 per person, double, covers roundtrip air from Miami, hotels, transfers, 16 meals, guide services, motorcoach transport, tips, health insurance and baggage handling. The single supplement is $550.

"We will offer more itineraries in 2014," Miradoli said. "But for now, we want to ensure that the quality of the program measures up to the Central Holidays tour standards that our customers have come to expect."

For Globus, entry into the Cuban people-to-people market actually started two years ago. The company was poised to make its debut in Cuba with a series of escorted religious programs in January 2012 after unveiling its plans the previous August.

However, confusion and complications surrounding federal regulations and rules regarding licensed travel to Cuba caused Globus to pull back.
It's back on track now, with two nine-day itineraries offering 20 departures from July 14 through Nov. 3, followed by 13 more in 2014.

Group Voyagers, the company that markets and sells the Globus Family of Brands (Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways) in the U.S., received its license from OFAC in February.

"Our new programs are not religious in theme but instead offer a full schedule of people-to-people educational exchange activities designed to result in meaningful interactions between our travelers and individuals in Cuba," said Pam Hoffee, vice president of product and operations for the Globus Family of Brands.

The Undiscovered Cuba tour spends a week in Havana and includes tours of historical and cultural sights as well as interactions with artists, musicians, architects, cigar rollers, students and workers at a silk-screening studio.

The second itinerary, Cuba's Charming Colonial Cities & Havana, visits Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) and Havana.

Participants attend a workshop at Casa de Africa discussing the African culture in Cuba, mingle with members of the Santo Angel neighborhood, meet dancers, teachers and costume makers at the Camaguey Ballet Co. and talk baseball with Cuban players.

Rates start at $2,974 per person, double, land only. Roundtrip air from Miami starts at $496.

While Hoffee acknowledged that the Globus itineraries "may be similar to others in the marketplace, ours have been scrutinized to meet our Globus brand standards. We're using some of the best hotels in Cuba, selected some of the top national guides, dedicated one of our product managers who has visited Cuba many times to handpick the people-to-people interactions in our programs."

Globus also includes a welcome briefing in Miami with a group leader who accompanies all departures.

Michigan-based Other Cuban Journeys received its OFAC license in January, but the company's origins date to 2000 when founders Marla Whitesman and Miriam Saul began leading humanitarian trips to Cuba's small Jewish community.

"We helped with the renaissance of that community and brought much-needed aid, as well," Whitesman said. "Through the years, we made many connections and impacted lives in Cuba as well as the travelers we brought with us, who told us that Cuba was a life-changing experience for them."

Saul, a Cuban-American, said, "Our past experiences, personal relationships and friendships with Cubans from all walks of life set us apart from other companies offering the people-to-people programs."

Other Cuban Journeys is offering six departures from June 17 to Jan. 20 on its eight-day Faces of Cuba itinerary, which includes Havana and the provinces of Matanzas and Pinar del Rio.

Prices start at $3,900 per person, double, including roundtrip air from Miami.

Group size on each departure will be capped at 24, Whitesman said.

Other itineraries still being developed will visit Santa Clara, Trinidad, Cienfuegos and additional sites.

Follow Gay Nagle Myers on Twitter @gnmtravelweekly. 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Tour-Operators/Three-more-companies-get-U-S--approval-to-offer-Cuba-travel/

CIEE licensed as third party provider for student programs

CIEE has been approved by the U.S. Treasury Department to once again run semester and short-term academic programs in Cuba for U.S. undergraduate students!

We hope to begin running custom and faculty-led programs in Cuba beginning in fall 2013 and are looking for faculty and administrators who are interested in providing their students with a high-quality international experience in this fascinating country.  

Please contact Kellie Sullivan immediately if you're interested in partnering with the CIEE Custom and Faculty-Led team to plan an academically rigorous, culturally rich, and safe program in Cuba for fall 2013. 

Interested in other CIEE Custom and Faculty-Led program destinations (http://www.ciee.org/study-abroad/advisors/custom/study-centers/)? Contact your Custom and Faculty-Led representative listed below.

Kellie Sullivan
Director, CIEE Custom and Faculty-Led Programs
207.553.4043
ksullivan@ciee.org

Erin Santana
Senior Coordinator, CIEE Custom and Faculty-Led Programs AL, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV
207.553.4172
esantana@ciee.org

Emily Moser
Senior Coordinator, CIEE Custom and Faculty-Led Programs AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, HI, IA, ID, IL, KS, MI, MN, MO, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY, WI  
207.553.4050
emoser@ciee.org

A New Provider Enters the Market

Globus unveils Cuba tours

By Gay Nagle Myers

Globus has launched people-to-people educational tours of Cuba. Two nine-day itineraries are offered with 20 departures running from July 14 through Nov. 3, followed by 13 more in 2014.

Globus was poised to make its debut in Cuba in January 2012 after unveiling plans the previous August. However, confusion and complications surrounding regulations and rules regarding licensed travel to Cuba had caused Globus to pull back.

Group Voyagers, the company that markets and sells the Globus family of brands (Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways) in the U.S., received its license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control in February.

"The new programs ... offer a full schedule of people-to-people educational exchange activities designed for meaningful interactions between our travelers and individuals in Cuba," said Pam Hoffee, vice president of product and operations for the Globus family of brands.

The Undiscovered Cuba tour spends a week in Havana and includes tours of historical and cultural sights along with interactions with artists, musicians, architects, cigar rollers, students and workers at a silk-screening studio.

The second itinerary, Cuba's Charming Colonial Cities & Havana, visits Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) and Havana.

Participants will attend a workshop at Casa de Africa discussing the African culture in Cuba, meet with members of the Santo Angel neighborhood; meet with dancers, teachers and costume makers at the Camaguey Ballet Co.; and talk baseball with Cuban players.

Rates start at $2,974 per person, double, land only. Roundtrip air from Miami starts at $496.

A special hotline for agents has been set up at (855) 522-4880.

Further details are available at www.globusjourneys.com.

Follow Gay Nagle Myers on Twitter @gnmtravelweekly.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Tour-Operators/Globus-unveils-Cuba-tours/

Dear Colleague Letter in Support of a General License for Purposeful Travel

From: The Honorable Sam Farr

Sent By: caitie.whelan@mail.house.gov

Date: 3/21/2013

Dear Colleague:

Over the past four years, President Obama has issued a series of policy changes aimed at bringing US-Cuba relations into the 21^st century. Please join me in signing this letter thanking the President for these policy changes and encouraging him to take the next step by using his executive authority to allow all categories of permissible travel to be carried out under a general license.

In 2009, President Obama announced Reaching Out to the Cuban People, a set of policy changes that fully restored the rights of Cuban-Americans to visit their families in Cuba and send them unlimited remittances. This has resulted in the reunification of hundreds of thousands of families and has provided the capital for Cubans to take advantage of economic reforms in Cuba and start their own businesses.

In 2011, President Obama took another important step by reauthorizing purposeful travel for all Americans, fostering meaningful people-to-people interaction between American and Cuban citizens. But these trips require a specific license granted to specialized travel service providers*. Unfortunately, the licensing process has reportedly been expensive, slow, cumbersome, and arbitrary, causing delays and – in some cases cancellations- of trips that enable Americans to exercise their right to purposeful travel to Cuba.

Please join me in signing this letter encouraging President Obama to resolve this problem by allowing all current categories of permissible travel, including people-to-people, to be carried out under a general license.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Caitie Whelan (Caitie.whelan@mail.house.gov) in my office.

Sincerely,

SAM FARR
Member of Congress

* licensees are not “travel service providers”, legally a different licensed category of tour operators which book tickets and programs for people to people groups, etc.  J McA

***************************************

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

We are writing on the fourth anniversary of Reaching Out to the Cuban People to thank you for instituting unlimited family travel to Cuba and eliminating restrictions on remittances by Cuban-Americans for their families. These changes have helped Cubans heal the wounds of generations and fostered the ability of untold thousands of Cubans to live more economically independent lives. Now, it is time to fully support American citizens’ purposeful travel to Cuba, and we encourage you to allow all current categories of permissible travel, including people-to-people, to be carried out under a general license.

Since the final Reaching Out to the Cuban People regulations were adopted on September 3, 2009, hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans have taken advantage of this opportunity to reunite with family every year. Moreover, as economic reforms in Cuba have opened opportunities for Cuban citizens to leave state jobs and work in small enterprises, family remittances have provided the capital for Cubans to start their own businesses. In addition, your decision in 2011 to open some categories of travel for all Americans has been an important step towards enabling civil society in both countries to become acquainted and work together in areas from science and environmental protection to religion, culture, and art.

Changes have occurred in Cuba, as well. Namely, in January of this year, Cuba rescinded restrictions on most Cubans’ foreign travel, including to the United States – a step the US and others have encouraged the island nation to do for many years. This action gives your Administration a predicate for doing more. 

Exercising your executive authority to allow all current categories of permissible travel, including people-to-people, to be carried out under the general license is the next logical step.

This action would speed the processes you have already unleashed: increasing opportunities for engagement and reconciliation, while also helping Cubans create more jobs and opportunities to further expand their independence.

Thank you for your commitment to bringing our foreign policy into the 21^st century and promoting diplomacy through the best resource our country has to offer: the American people.

Sincerely,


1. Karen Bass, D-CA-37

2. Timothy Bishop D-NY-1

3.  Capps D-CA-42

4.  Capuano D-MA-7

5.  Castor D-FL-14

6.  Yvette Clarke D-NY-9

7.  Clay D-MO-1

8.  Cleaver D-MO-5

9.  Cohen D-TN-9

10.  Conyers D-MI-13

11.  Danny Davis D-IL-7

12.  DeLauro D-CT-3

13.  Donna Edwards D-MD-4

14.  Ellison D-MN-5

15.  Eshoo D-CA-18

16.  Farr D-CA-20

17.  Fattah D-PA-2

18.  Garamendi D-CA-3

19.  Grijalva D-AZ-3

20.  Holt D-NJ-12

21.  Honda D-CA-17

22.  Huffman D-CA-2

23.  Hank Johnson D-GA-4

24.  Kaptur D-OH-9

25.  Langevin D-RI-2

26.  Lee D-CA-13

27.  John Lewis D-GA-5

28.  Carolyn Maloney D-NY-12

29.  Markey D-MA-5

30.  McCollum D-MN-4

31.  McDermott D-WA-7

32.  McGovern D-MA-2

33.  Meeks D-NY-5

34.  Michaud D-ME-2

35.  George Miller D-CA-11

36.  Moran D-VA-8

37.  Nadler D-NY-10

38.  Napolitano D-CA-32

39.  Neal D-MA-1

40.  Nolan D-MA-8

41.  Norton D-DC

42.  Pingree D-ME-1

43.  Pocan D-WI-2

44.  Polis D-CO-2

45.  David Price D-NC-4

46.  Rangel D-NY-13

47.  Rush D-IL-1

48. Schakowsky D-IL-9

49.  Bobby Scott D-VA-3

50.  Serrano D-NY-15

51.  Slaughter D-NY-25

52.  Speier D-CA-14

53. Bennie Thompson D-MS-2

54.  Mike Thompson D-CA-5

55.  Waters D-CA-43

56.  Watt D-NC-12

57.  Waxman D-CA-33

58.  Welch D-VT

59.  Yarmuth D-KY-3

If your Representative is not yet on this list, please call her or his office and ask why not:  202-224-3121.  Call once a week until you receive a satisfactory answer.  (If already on the list, call to say thanks.)  --JMcA

A sample memo to a member of Congress:


The Case for Signing the Dear Colleague Letter by Rep. Sam Farr

1)  Rep. xxx has been a long time advocate of freedom of travel to Cuba, serving as a prominent cosponsor of the last legislative effort to end restrictions.

2)  There is no hope that legislation to end travel restrictions will be adopted by a Republican controlled House.

3)  The President has the power to authorize any kind of travel that is purposeful, i.e. within the thirteen categories codified into law in 2000.

4)  Only the President, through his instructions to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, determines the way licensing is authorized.  Bush tightened licensed travel to near death.  Obama restored it to life.

5)  The President granted general licenses to Cuban Americans, universities and religious organizations.  They do not have to apply or report to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

6)  By the stroke of a pen he can extend the same right to all other forms of purposeful travel, e.g. people to people, athletic, cultural, conferences.  To qualify, individuals and organizations would simply have to affirm they are not going to Cuba for tourist purposes.

7)  Still precluded would be large scale commercial sun and sand holidays.

8)  This would remove travel from the bureaucratic politically sensitive hands of the Office of Foreign Assets Control which second guesses in advance the motives of American citizens (prior censorship).  Members of Congress who oppose all travel might continue to fume about high visibility travelers like Beyonce and Jay-Z, but they could not blame the Administration.

9)  Constituents of Rep. xxx will benefit from removing bureaucratic control over travel.  YYY spent months seeking renewal of its People to People license, justifying every moment of its completed programs and fine tuning future ones.  Significant business was lost and staff had to be laid off.  Others have faced the same months long process which OFAC explains on grounds of limited personnel rather than its own overwrought procedures.

10)  The current licensing system forces Americans to participate in structured group tours that are organized by Cuban State companies, require staying in State hotels, and favor eating in State restaurants.  Needless to say the Cubans influence strongly what is included in programs.

11)  A general license  will allow individuals, families and groups of friends to organize their own program.  They will be able to stay in privately owned bed and breakfasts (casas particulares), and will tend to use privately owned restaurants (paladars).  They will be able to rent cars and use public buses and trains, just like Canadians and Europeans.  In other words they will have a more spontaneous grass roots unsupervised people to people experience and contribute far less to the State budget. 

12)  General license trips will also be considerably less expensive, opening the door for a far wider range of American visitors from back packers to fixed income retirees.  Direct flights from other cities' airports will become economically viable rather than being limited to Florida with its high concentration of Cuban Americans.

13)  Signature of the Dear Colleague letter by a larger number of Representatives, including members of the House leadership, will enable the President to resist the intense pressure against liberalization of travel from the Cuban American lobby who do not represent opinion in their own community, much less the two-thirds of Americans who favor the end of all travel restrictions.

14)  Because of Cuba's migratory law reform last January, Cubans have more freedom to come to the US than Americans have to go to Cuba.

As always, if I can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to call me.

Warm regards,

People to People Ambassador Programs Receives License

SPOKANE, Wash., April 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- People to People Ambassador Programs, the leader in global educational travel experiences for students, educators and professionals for 50 years, will begin offering adult travel programs to Cuba beginning in July 2013. In response to high demand from the organization's alumni of career professionals, People to People Citizen Ambassador Programs (Ambassadors Group, Inc.) acquired a travel operator "people-to-people" license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which allows U.S. citizens to legally visit Cuba.

Vocational Travel and International Good Will

Citizen Ambassador Programs offers a wealth of opportunities for career professionals who want to get a first-hand look at Cuba, such as exploring the challenges of Havana's infrastructure on a public works program or visiting a polyclinic on a medically focused program. Program delegates will meet with locals and have a culturally immersive experience under the umbrella of collaboration and exchange within one's vocation.

Dr. Karen Jacobs, former president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and clinical professor at Boston University, will guide a "Mission in Understanding" delegation in August 2013.

"My program will provide delegates an opportunity to learn about Cuba as a country and to further the People to People mission of peace and global awareness. Participants will gain insight into the social, education, health and youth development of today's Cuba," said Jacobs.

Highlights of the program include an explanation of the projects carried out for the rehabilitation of Old Havana, taking part in a walking tour of the village, attending a neighborhood street party where participants will interact with locals, and exchanges at local community projects.

"The adult travel programs really give professionals a hands-on immersion in the Cuban culture and direct interaction with locals in their same profession," said Nicola Balmain, Vice President of Travel Services for People to People Ambassador Programs. "That peer to peer exchange, accompanied with our best in class guides and local experts, add up to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Cuba."

Trips are seven nights in country with regularly schedule departures from Miami in July 2013 through December 2013.

For more information about People to People's Citizen Ambassador Programs visit www.peopletopeople.com/cuba or call 877.787.2000.

About People to People Ambassador Programs

People to People Ambassador Programs is the world's most recognized student educational travel provider. Since the 1960s, more than 500,000 people from around the world have traveled with People to People Ambassador Programs to help further global understanding through cross-cultural exchange. Offering unmatched safety measures and unparalleled access to foreign cultures and countries, People to People Ambassador Programs promotes personal success in a globalized world and fosters international friendships for both students and professional adults.

People to People Ambassador Programs is the exclusive educational travel provider of People to People International (PTPI), a nonprofit organization founded in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to promote peace through understanding worldwide. Together, PTPI and People to People Ambassador Programs are united in a mission to bridge cultural and political borders through education and exchange. For more information, please visit www.peopletopeople.com.

About Ambassadors Group

Ambassadors Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EPAX) is an education company located in Spokane, Washington. Ambassadors Group, Inc. is the parent company of Ambassador Programs, Inc., World Adventures Unlimited, Inc., and BookRags, Inc., an educational research website. The Company also oversees the Washington School of World Studies, an accredited travel study and distance learning school. Additional information about Ambassadors Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries is available at www.ambassadorsgroup.com. In this press release, "Company", "we", "us", and "our" refer to Ambassadors Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Ambassador Programs, Inc. operates delegations to Cuba under license CT-2012-297557-1 issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control.

SOURCE People to People Ambassador Programs

/CONTACT: Doug Williams, (310) 503-8680, doug.williams@peopletopeople.com

/Web site: http://www.peopletopeople.com