Connection: Local Travelers

Cuba is not the last place Spokane residents want to vacation, but it’s near the bottom of the list, local travel agents said this week.

Requests to travel from the Inland Empire to the land of Fidel Castro are few and far between, they said.

“I’ve been in the travel industry for 27 years, and I’ve had very few requests for it,” said Connie Smith of Travel Consultants Inc. of Spokane. “I think there are so many other destinations out there for people to consider if they’re looking for some place warm and sunny.”

The island’s communist history and anti-American rhetoric are part of the problem, Smith said.

“When people go on vacation, they don’t want to go into an atmosphere that they consider unfavorable,” she said.

Tyrell Kupers of Atlas Travel in Spokane said lack of marketing also hurts the country.

“I don’t see why people would even want to go there really, other than to see a different culture,” Kupers said. “They really don’t try to attract tourists or anything. They’re in none of the brochures.”

Sylvia Merrill of Carlson-Wagonlit Travel in the Spokane Valley said she thinks that would change if the federal embargo forbidding travel to Cuba is lifted.

“I just think it would be a wonderful thing,” Merrill said. “I hear the beaches there are just beautiful. I bet the cruise lines would be excited about going there.”