'Historic' US-Cuba cruise deal approved

US cruise firm Carnival Corp is the first to win approval to operate culturally themed excursions to Cuba, with the first cruises expected to set sail next year.

The US and Cuba have been mending their relationship in recent months after more than five decades of mistrust and hostility. Last week, the once-bitter foes officially agreed to restore diplomatic relations from 20 July.

Carnival Corp is holding talks with Cuba to start humanitarian and cultural visits, the Miami Herald reports. They had been prohibited under US embargo rules that ban Americans from going to Cuba as tourists, but permit them to travel if they are visiting family or taking part in academic programmes.

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The Miami-based firm hopes to transport American passengers from May 2016. It will use the 710-passenger vessel that now sails as P&O Cruises' Adonia in the UK. Carnival Corp believes there will be "tremendous pent-up hunger in the marketplace" for such a cruise.

"These licenses today are historic," said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corp. "This will be the first time in well over 50 years that a cruise ship can take passengers from the United States to Cuba and return in any kind of repeated basis."

Brad Tolkin, co-chairman and CEO of cruise distributor World Travel Holdings, described the idea as "brilliant", but warned that the tickets will not be cheap.

"The price point, while steep, it won't be a hurdle," he said. "Like people buying the Apple Watch: There's going to be people who just do it."

Cruise services of this kind were ended in the 1960s after Fidel Castro took power following the Cuban revolution, says Sky News. However, in May, the US Treasury Department approved several licences for passenger ferry services between Cuba and the US.