A Cuban Beach

Check out Orbitz – getting’ all political!  The online travel company has put together a website and petition promoting the legalization of travel for U.S. citizens to Cuba.  We applaud their efforts and encourage all of you to sign the petition. 

We won’t attempt to do a better job than they have of just why this transcends politics and political parties.  Here’s their letter from their CEO explaining the reasoning behind this campaign:

“Dear Mindful Tourist,

At Orbitz we believe passionately in the power of travel to transform lives. And we believe that people should have the freedom to travel wherever they choose.

Americans today have the right to travel to any country in the world except Cuba. Three weeks ago, we launched www.OpenCuba.org, a campaign that gives people a way to petition U.S. leaders to end the 50-year Cuba travel ban and give all Americans the freedom to travel to Cuba.

With Congress considering the bipartisan Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, the opportunity to end the 50-year ban hangs in the balance.

We recognize that some of you may have different perspectives on this subject; however, our position on this is premised on two core beliefs:

• People should have the freedom to travel where they choose
• Travel — and the resulting exchange of ideas between people from different countries — can be a powerful force for positive change

Thank you for considering our request to join us on this issue.

Barney Harford
CEO Orbitz Worldwide

Tags: Cuba, Orbitz, petition

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 6:17 am and is filed under Cultural Tourism, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.