Tours changing American perspectives of Cuba, US foreign policy
When U.S. President Barack Obama reinstated "people-to-people" travel to Cuba in 2011, the idea was that visiting Americans would act as cultural ambassadors for a U.S. constantly demonized in the island's official media. Two and a half years later, a survey suggests the trips are not only improving Cubans' views of Americans, but they are also changing U.S. travelers' opinions of the Caribbean nation for the better, and dimming their view of Washington policies that have long sought to pressure Cuba's Communist leaders.
"I think U.S.-Cuban relations should be open. People should be talking to each other. People should be sharing," said Ellen Landsberger, a 62-year-old New York obstetrician who recently visited on a people-to-people tour. "We have this tiny little island that is no threat to the U.S. that we're isolating from the world," she said. "It doesn't make sense."
There's surely significant self-selection among people-to-people travelers; supporters of a hard-line policy against Cuba are unlikely to consider such a tour. And the people who run the trips tend to be more or less sympathetic to the idea of easing or lifting the 52-year-old U.S. embargo, which could potentially be a boon to their business. Still, the results of the multiple-choice survey by Friendly Planet Travel, a company based in suburban Philadelphia that promotes legal tours of Cuba, are eye-catching. Three-quarters said they were drawn by curiosity about life in a nation that has been off-limits to most Americans for decades.
Before travel, the most prevalent view of Raul Castro's government was "a repressive Communist regime that stifles individuality and creativity," 48 percent of respondents said. That fell to 19 percent after their visits, and the new most-popular view, held by 30 percent of respondents, became the slightly more charitable "a failing government that is destined to fall."
Most striking, 88 percent said the experience made them more likely than before to support ending the embargo against Cuba. Peggy Goldman, president of Friendly Planet Travel, said visitors are surprised at how hard it is to find many goods, even something as basic as an adhesive bandage.
Some leave Cuba blaming U.S. policy for the shortages — as the Cuban government does constantly, although analysts also point to a weak, inefficient and corruption-ridden economic system as a key cause of scarcity. "In day-to-day life, it's so difficult for the average Cuban. When the travelers go and they see that, and they experience it themselves, it makes sense that they say it (the embargo) doesn't make sense," Goldman said. "It hasn't toppled the government in all these years. We need to try a different way."
資料來源：http://www.chinapost.com.tw/guidepost/topics/default.asp?id=3908&next=1&sub=7
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