Cuba Photograph Album and Journal

Cuba has been a popular tourist destination for many years. In fact, between 1915 and 1930, Havana had more tourists than any other Caribbean location. A great deal of the tourism revenue was American, due in large part to the prohibition of the sale alcohol. As a result, tourism became Cuba's third largest source of foreign currency, behind sugar and tobacco. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s, along with the end of prohibition and World War II impacted Cuba's tourist industry very severely. It wasn't until the 1950s that the American tourists began returning in significant numbers. During this period, American organized crime began dominating the leisure and tourist industries. Havana became one of the favorite routes for narcotics - from South America into the United States.

In the 1960s, relations between what was by this time openly communist Cuba and the United States deteriorated to such a degree that in 1961, The U. S. State Department declared that tourism travel to Cuba was contrary U. S. foreign policy and against the national interest. From that point until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, American visitors to Cuba were comparatively rare, and even then the U. S. government discouraged travel to Cuba. It wasn't until 2015 and 2016 when the U. S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets began to ease travel restrictions, that certain types of travel from the U. S. have picked up. Travel to Cuba is now possible for educational institutions; cultural, historical, and religious organizations; private foundations; and amateur sports teams. However, U. S. citizens are still prohibited from traveling to Cuba for tourist or recreational activities.