U.S.-Cuba Travel Remains Restricted: Non-U.S. Travel Company Offers Should Be Carefully Reviewed

PORTLAND, Ore., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- While some select groups can be licensed to travel to Cuba, the general U.S. public is not permitted to travel freely to Cuba.  Recently some non-U.S. companies have been promoting U.S. travel to Cuba and appear to be encouraging teachers to skirt the law by guiding them to claim to be conducting research.

"As upstanding members of the travel community, we must uphold the law and abide by U.S. regulations," said Ronen Paldi, president of Ya'lla Tours USA.  "We're encouraging the travel community to not participate or support any questionable travel programs and alert any of their customers that are teachers who were solicited to take those trips."

U.S.-Cuba travel restrictions may eventually change with the latest in a series of Cuba travel bills that have been introduced in Congress.  The H.R.874 bill was introduced on February 4, 2009 by Rep. William Delahunt, D-MA, and it is currently being reviewed by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.  

Ya'lla Tours USA is the only wholesale tour company with a license for travel to Cuba and who works with travel agents.  "Since beginning our work in Cuba in 2002, we have always followed the regulations for travel to Cuba as set by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control," added Paldi.  "We assist organizations that hold humanitarian or religious licenses and have helped several thousand travelers attend to their work in Cuba."

About Ya'lla Tours USA

Founded in 1993, Ya'lla Tours USA delivers life-changing travel experiences in many exotic Mediterranean destinations such as Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Greece.  Ya'lla Tours USA is also the only wholesale tour company licensed by the U.S. Treasury to operate legal travel to Cuba.  More information on Ya'lla, which means "let's go" in Hebrew and Arabic, is available at www.yallatours.com or by calling 800 644 1595.

SOURCE Ya'lla Tours USA