Group Seeking Free Access to Cuba Speaks at ASTA Congress

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development, a nonprofit devoted to opening the doors to travel worldwide, used the ASTA congress here as its backdrop for launching the Travel Industry Committee for Freedom of Access to Cuba.

It sponsored a trade show booth and a networking reception, and it sought signatures on a petition to lift all restrictions on travel to Cuba.

John McAuliff, speaking for the parent organization, called the new committee for access to Cuba a "paper organization," but "it can be more."

Ronen Paldi, president of Ya´lla Tours in Portland, Ore., one of two travel companies licensed to take groups to Cuba, reminded agents it is against the law to send people to Cuba through a third country or to promote travel to Cuba in the U.S. He said he "knows a couple of agencies busted and forced to pay heavy fines."