Cuba May Be Opening, but Business Travel Remains Limited
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Version 0 of 1. THERE had been a line around the block for tickets, and when the lights came up on opening night, Dec. 24, the reaction was wild — “applause, tears, hugging in the audience,” said Robert Nederlander Jr. The show was “Rent,” the musical about impoverished young artists struggling on the Lower East Side of New York. The venue was the Bertolt Brecht Theater in Havana, where Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, of which Mr. Nederlander is the president, has mounted a full Broadway-style musical production, in a partnership with the Cuban National Council of Performing Arts. “We had expected this to be purely for a local Cuban audience, which certainly was our goal in producing ‘Rent’ with our partners there. But it turns out that we’re getting a sizable number of tourists as well,” said Mr. Nederlander, who is a third-generation member of the Broadway-based family theatrical dynasty. Mr. Nederlander has been leading his company’s initiative to bring Broadway musicals to emerging international markets. This has included producing musicals like “42nd Street” in China and presenting Chinese productions in New York. Nederlander Worldwide first entered Cuba in 2011 with a musical revue at the Havana Theatre Festival called “Broadway Ambassadors.” Managing to obtain the necessary licenses and clearances while producing two shows there makes Mr. Nederlander a pioneer of sorts as an American business traveler to Cuba. “Rent” coincidentally opened just before the Obama administration’s relaxing of strict travel restrictions to the island. “I’ve been involved every step of the way for the last four years,” Mr. Nederlander said of the work in Havana. “Rent” has an all-Cuban cast, and a Broadway creative and theatrical team worked in Havana with Cuban counterparts. The Spanish-language show is scheduled for a three-month run. Tickets start at 50 cents in the 350-seat theater, he said. Much of the speculation surrounding the easing of the travel ban has been about potential expansion of air service between Cuba and the United States. But, with a few exceptions represented by cultural activities like Mr. Nederlander’s, the business-travel market to the island remains limited “simply because there is very little business in Cuba,” said Michael Boyd, the president of Boyd Group International, an airline consulting firm. Mr. Boyd is not impressed by the short-term potential for expanded travel to Cuba. “For one thing, there aren’t enough hotels, and the quality is questionable,” he said. Rigid Cuban government policies on private businesses deter the confidence necessary for major hotel-industry investment from abroad, he added. So business travelers make do with what’s available. “The hotels were adequate for our needs, though you don’t have the same choice and selection as you would in capitals in other parts of the world,” Mr. Nederlander said. One notable issue is Internet service, which is not available for most Cubans and is restricted mostly to large hotels for visitors. “It depends on the hotel,” he added. “Some of them don’t have the greatest bandwidth, but it’s certainly accessible. And you actually get used to not having email access outside the hotel, if you’re there for a week.” There is no direct service on scheduled airlines between the United States and Cuba. That is not likely to change soon because airlines in the United States hoping to start commercial service face an approval processes that could take over a year. For now, most of the limited number of Americans who visit Cuba for leisure or business arrive on specialized charter flights accredited for cultural, educational and religious missions. Of course, the embargo by the United States hasn’t affected Cuba’s air connections with Europe, Mexico, Canada and Latin America, as Mr. Boyd pointed out. “Cuba is a trading partner with the rest of the world,” he said. However, most existing international travel is by vacationers, not those on business, in a country where private enterprise remains severely limited and tourist amenities are well below international standards. “It’s kind of like the old East Germany, but with really nice beaches,” Mr. Boyd said. Still, with the relaxations easing, there is demand for travel to Cuba from the United States, including among those who travel by private jet. “We’re getting a lot of requests from people saying, ‘Can we get to Cuba?’” said Jeff Trance, the senior vice president for private jets at the United States division of Air Partner, a company based near London that brokers private jet flights globally. “Obviously the answer right now is no,” he said, adding that it was too soon to know when regulatory hurdles might be overcome. “Of course, we’re looking at it and trying to figure out when that will open up.” Just as it has been for commercial air service, however, Cuba has been open for years to private jet travel from Europe and other countries. “There’s never been an embargo for those countries,” he said, adding, “If the airlines can get there, private jets can get there.” |