Supporting British nationals in Cuba
The British Embassy in Havana was delighted to welcome Meg Williams, Consular Regional Director for the Americas and Danielle Millington, the Consular Regional Operations Manager for the Caribbean, to Cuba last week.
Regional Consular visit to Havana
The British Embassy in Havana was delighted to welcome Meg Williams, Consular Regional Director for the Americas and Danielle Millington, the Consular Regional Operations Manager for the Caribbean, to Cuba last week. This was Meg’s first visit to Cuba since taking up her job earlier this year which oversees the consular work of 37 teams in 24 countries. The visit provided the opportunity for them to review the consular services we provide in Cuba both to gather best practice and share useful experience and ideas from other British Embassies and High Commissions in the Americas.
Our Deputy Head of Mission and consular colleagues joined Meg and Danielle in a meeting with representatives of British and Cuban tour operators and travel agencies that bring British clients to the island. Along with celebrating the positive, collaborative relationship between our sectors, we discussed our Consular Strategy priorities, what we can do together to prevent consular cases, and had a broad discussion on key features of the tourism market. The visit took place one month after Hurricane Matthew so part of the meeting was devoted to learning lessons about crisis preparedness and reflecting on communication with the Embassy before and after the passage of the hurricane. The Embassy also had a separate internal meeting with Danielle and Meg about Hurricane Matthew and general crisis planning. Before they left Cuba, Meg and Danielle also had the chance to visit Cira Garcia clinic, the main medical facility for foreigners in Havana to meet with the officials of the clinic. We gained a better understanding of their process and agreed on ways to mutual support each other and our mutual customers.
The number of British tourists to Cuba has been increasing over the last few years. There were 155 802 in 2015, 26% more than in the previous year.