Until just a few days ago Havana’s Old Town was swarming with U.S. visitors, mainly from cruise ships, who toured the zone to learn about its history, culture and heritage.
Private businesses in the area like restaurants, cafeterias, craft sellers and the iconic convertible vintage cars thrived with thousands of tourists supporting their activities and directly engaging with the booming sector which currently employs more than 584,000 Cubans.
However, that reality dramatically changed this week when Washington decided to abruptly end cruise ships to the island and people-to-people educational exchanges, the most popular category used by U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba.
Article by Xinhua here.