(CNN) The US announced major new restrictions on US citizens traveling to Cuba on Tuesday, blocking the most common way Americans are able to visit the island -- through organized tour groups that license US citizens to travel automatically -- and banning US cruise ships from stopping in the country.

American tourism is not explicitly permitted in Cuba. However, Americans can travel to Cuba if it is covered under specific categories, which included organized group travel, known as group people-to-people travel, until Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement that the restrictions are a result of Cuba continuing "to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up US adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes."

The State Department announced that "going forward, the United States will prohibit US travelers from going to Cuba under the previous 'group people-to-people educational' travel authorization. In addition, the United States will no longer permit visits to Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, and private and corporate aircraft."

A State Department spokesperson for Western Hemisphere affairs said the new restrictions "on US passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, and corporate and private aircraft, steers American dollars away from the Cuban regime, and its military and security services, who control the tourism industry in Cuba."

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