3. Havana proved an irresistible lure to some American travelers.
For Americans with the means to travel by sea, the nearby island of Cuba beckoned. Its allure came partly from its climate, partly because of the exotic descriptions of the island, and partly because the curse of Prohibition did not apply. Havana alone offered well over 5,000 bars and other drinking establishments, making it attractive to out-of-work American bartenders and innkeepers. Americans visiting Havana flocked to bars staffed by Americans, where they could be understood without having to learn even rudimentary Spanish. American distillers joined them in temporary exile, and a thriving American community evolved in Cuba, with most of them centered in Havana.
American-owned and operated hotels and resorts began to open in the early 1920s, eventually expanding to a point where Cuban-owned facilities formed organizations to compete with the intruders. In 1920, more than 50 thousand Americans visited the island, many of them would stay for good. There they offered amenities to their fellow countrymen who visited annually. Virtually all of them traveled to and from the island by ship, and many shipping companies offered excursions with preset itineraries. By the end of 1921 Americans could vacation in Havana for weeks at a time without ever spending any of their hard-earned money in an establishment owned and operated by natives of Cuba. Havana remained a popular tourist resort until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the ensuing boycott.