U.S. travel group eyes forbidden Cuba

[Escott]

Originally posted by Tony C


Every liberal hipocrite in the 50 states will gladly line up for a trip to the "Socialist paradise"!

Tony C

I am hardly a liberal but I would like to see the place that has been forbidden to me for travel for my adult life. I was tempted to go there from Mexico and the DR on many occassions but wasn't able to get it together for some reason.

Regards

[Andy B]

We've hashd this subject over several times both on this board and on the "other" one that no longer exists. It was the general consensus of most of those then responding to the other threads that Cuba IS the 800 lb. gorilla waiting to trounce on the DR's tourism and if you don't think that most of the American market will flee the DR for the Cuban market you've really got your head buried deep in the sand. Cuba is a much worse economic threat to the DR than is international terrorism.

Before Castro came to power, much of Miami went "south" for the weekends and filled the hotels and casinos of Havana to overflowing. And now with Cuba having been the "forbidden fruit" for so many years, when it opens to Americans with today's ease of travel, they're going to flood it's shores again and forget the DR exists. Personally, I just hope that when this happens, we've already sold our hotel and are completely out of the DR tourism business and are safely retired back in Florida.

If the tourism division of the DR government doesn't wake up soon and really learn how to market this place, it's going to be all over but the shoutin' (or should I say "crying") the day the gorilla wakes.

[PJT]

Andy, you have got it right. Watch out when the gorilla awakes.

The D.R. should not be taking out US$ 38 million loans for health services for the legislators. But, rather invest in a market (tourism) that will give something back as opposed to one that will continuously be a drain.

Does the D.R. have the foresight?

Regards, PJT

[Tony C]

Originally posted by jazzcom


I am hardly a liberal but I would like to see the place that has been forbidden to me for travel for my adult life. I was tempted to go there from Mexico and the DR on many occassions but wasn't able to get it together for some reason.

Regards

I am sure you will enjoy staying in a hotel their after all they don't allow any of the locals to enter. That way you won't have to see oppression face to face. Out of sight out of mind right?

Tony C.

[MommC]

I've talked with many Italians and Canadians who have been to Cuba OUTSIDE of the resorts- mingling with the inhabitants.
They were all impressed with the scenery,beaches, the cleanliness, good lodgings, great food, intelligent (mostly university educated) people including those "damas di dia - *****di noche" (you know what I mean)and low cost of their stays.

Now why would anyone want to come to this country where it's dirty, no sanitation,no drinking water,eroded beaches, and expensive when they can visit a real paradise unspoiled by all the over development that is seen here?

[Tony C]

Originally posted by MommC
I've talked with many Italians and Canadians who have been to Cuba OUTSIDE of the resorts- mingling with the inhabitants.
They were all impressed with the scenery,beaches, the cleanliness, good lodgings, great food, intelligent (mostly university educated) people including those "damas di dia - *****di noche" (you know what I mean)and low cost of their stays.

Now why would anyone want to come to this country where it's dirty, no sanitation,no drinking water,eroded beaches, and expensive when they can visit a real paradise unspoiled by all the over development that is seen here?

I guess it is just a questions of right and wrong. I, for one, would never visit or support a country as oppressive a Cuba. Included in this list are North Korea, PRC, Iraq, Iran, Zimbabwe, Israel, Mauratania and many others. You on the other hand would support anybody as long as the beaches are nice and the rooms are clean. I understand Nazi Germany had some of the cleanest streets you ever saw!

Tony C

[Andy B]

Tony, I agree with you about not supporting an opressive government, but what I think what we are talking about in this thread is what will happen AFTER Castro goes and Cuba changes. As long as there is an oppressive, communist government the American people will not be disposed toward vacationing there. Those Americans that are going there now are not representative of the general US travel market.

MommC has a good point when she cites the well-known drawbacks of a vacation in the DR: dirty, no sanitation, very little potable water, FILTHY beaches, and overpriced; not to mention open prostitution, constant attempts by locals to scam the tourists, and corrupt Politur police and tourism officials. She should have also mentioned the conditions those of us in the tourist industry have to contend with daily: ignorant and surly employees that constantly lie and steal, corrupt government officials, local merchants constantly trying to overcharge us, lack of a continuing, coherent government plan to draw tourists to the DR (and subsequently having to promote it ourselves-my main reason for creating Samana.Net, it certainly isn't profit), unequal application of rules and regulations; the list goes on and on.

Tourists can put up with some deprivations, but too many negatives such as these that affect the quality of a vacation surely portend serious problems, if not the demise of an important part of this country's economy. Without tourism, this place will roll over and play dead. We have enough problems now without having to deal with Cuba further competing with the DR for tourist dollars.

[Tony C]

Andy B.
What you say is true. Why do you think less and less Americans tourists travel to the DR? The reasons why so many Candians and Euros go to the DR is because all they care about is cheap!

Tony C.

[MommC]

I don't condone the oppression in Cuba but we are talking about AFTER Castro. I also don't condone US ownership of foreign countries. Do you think the Americans didn't oppress the average Cuban citizen when they owned most of Havana and most of the agriculture and industries in pre-Castro Cuba???
You are so mis-informed TonyC that you need to take off those US blinkers and open your eyes and mind to the REAL world.
Just because the US thrives on DEMOCRACY rather than communism doesn't mean they are not just oppressive as any communist country!!
The greatest slave nation in history was the US. It took a truly liberated,democratic loving man to abolish one of the forms of oppression the US used to "grow" it's status as a "Democratic" country!

Also there are other places much nicer to visit than the DR that are just as "cheap". Most of us who come here do so for the climate and the people. In fact we "touristas" have a saying that goes like this........"The only good things about the DR are the weather and the friends!"

[Andy B]

MommC, better refresh yourself regarding US history: Lincoln freed the slaves only AFTER he (and his Cabinet) realized that the main issue at hand, state's rights, was not emotional enough to rally the northern people into fighting their brothers in the south to keep the union intact. To him it was simply a matter of politics, not of deep, profound belief.

And as regards the US being the greatest slave nation in history, only a small part of the country was activly involved in slave ownership and that was mainly the agricultural sectors, both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line. Far more societies in the world have embraced slavery more so than the US. Even the ancient Romans and Greeks, considered to be the most advanced and revered societies of their times, had slaves. And it wasn't the Americans who primarily traded in slaves, it was European based: primarily the Dutch, Spanish and French who bought the slaves that their own African peoples had already enslaved.

The US as oppressive as communism? That statement is so ludicrous it doesn't deserve a comment.