Carnival, the largest cruise company in the world, is setting its sights on Havana.
Pending approval by the Cuban government, the cruise company will begin offering "voluntourism" trips from Miami to Cuba in May 2016 for nearly $3,000 per ticket. Although Carnival would be the first American cruise company to visit Cuba since the 1960 trade embargo, cruise companies outside the U.S. have been offering cruises there for years.
The U.S. government has signed off on the project, according to Carnival.
The trips will be through Carnival's new brand, fathom (Tagline: Impact + Travel), which focuses on social impact with trips where passengers do volunteer work while they cruise.
Despite the warming relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, Americans still can't legally vacation in Cuba.
There are 12 approved reasons for visiting the country, including partaking in a cultural or humanitarian trip, which is where Carnival's "voluntourism" brand fits in.
"I think it's going to be a tremendous experience for the Fathom travelers, a great way to build what looks like an extremely promising future for cruise travel to Cuba and beyond for Americans," said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corp. in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. "We feel really privileged to be granted the licenses."
Donald said the idea of Cuba was in the back of Carnival executives' minds when they launched the fathom brand last month.
Carnival's license comes as part of recent approvals for six passenger vessels from the Treasury Department. The government would not name the companies that received these licenses or what their specific line of business is. They could be ferries, yacht charters or cruises. Of those six, four of them are authorized to allow passengers and crew to spend the night aboard, even when docked in a Cuban port. Other major cruise lines did not immediately respond to inquiries about their efforts to sail to Cuba.
The vessels are not allowed to stop at other counties, so don't expect Cuba to become one of four or five stops on a typical Caribbean cruise anytime soon.
About 600,000 U.S. travelers are estimated to visit Cuba each year. Cuban officials estimate that 1.5 million Americans would travel to the island annually if all restrictions were removed, supplanting Canada as the No. 1 source of tourism and potentially adding some $2 billion a year to state coffers.
Prices for the planned week-long voyages, aboard the Adonia, start at $2,990 per person, plus taxes and port fees. Reservations with fully refundable deposits are being accepted beginning Tuesday.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press