WASHINGTON -- Fresh from a six-day visit to Cuba, and dinner with
Fidel Castro, ASTA president Richard Copland praised the island as
a future vacation destination and disclosed plans to roll out a
Cuba destination specialist program at the next ASTA World Travel
Congress.
In an interview with Travel Weekly, Copland called Castro "very
personable."
Copland, his wife and two other ASTA officials, ASTA treasurer
Mary Louise Seifert and Bill Conner, ASTA staff senior vice
president, meetings, education, and member services, visited Cuba
from April 1 to 6, Copland said, adding that the Cuban government
sponsored the trip.
Copland said, "We feel that one of these days Cuba will become a
travel destination. We feel one of our obligations for our members
is to prepare them -- and just as I think we should have a
destination specialist program on Antarctica, we feel it is
appropriate to have one on Cuba. So we are going to announce a
destination specialist program at the ASTA World Travel Congress in
Hawaii."
But opening travel to Cuba may be easier said than done.
There is growing sentiment among certain members of Congress
that some, if not all, of the sanctions and restrictions
prohibiting travel to Cuba should be lifted. However, an equally
determined contingent, particularly led by the delegation from
Florida, home to many Cuban exiles, advocates making the
restrictions even tougher.
Get More!
Watch for further coverage and agent reaction in the April 15
issue of Travel Weekly.