Two of Spain’s leading hotel chains with long experience in Cuba are to open new properties on the island nation after several years of hard times and uncertainties and a new bounce in tourism numbers.

According to Ignacio Aparicio, a partner at the Andersen law firm in Spain and the director of its Cuban Desk, successive US. presidents had suspended the application of Title III until the Trump Administration.

“Since then, many lawsuits have been filed in US courts against companies allegedly trafficking in confiscated assets,” he said. “So far, several lawsuits have been dismissed…and we are not aware of any final decision of condemnation.”

However, under Title IV of the act, the US can prohibit the entry into the United States to executives and their family members which Washington deems to have trafficked in property over which a U.S. national has a claim.

“During the Trump Administration, the US Secretary of State decided to prohibit the entry into the U.S. of some 20 executives of the Meliá hotel company, as well as all their families including its CEO Gabriel Escarrer,” Aparicio explained.

“Meliá and other Spanish hotel companies have, for many years, been committed to tourism development on the island because of the future importance of this market and because they do not recognize the extraterritorial application of the Helms-Burton Act,” he said.

You can read the full article in Hospitality Insights.