For more than a decade, Charles Bittner has led American travelers to Cuba — nearly 80 group trips in all. But in a recent interview with WABE’s “All Things Considered,” he said his most recent visit, just weeks ago, felt unlike anything he had seen before.
“Wherever we went, we were the only people there,” Bittner said. “Restaurants that had been thriving… were absolutely dead.”
Bittner, a sociology professor who began organizing educational and cultural trips about 13 years ago, says the changes he’s witnessed in Cuba track closely with shifts in United States policy. His first visit came during the administration of George W. Bush, when travel was tightly restricted but still possible under specific licenses.
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