To hear Ben Rhodes, the mastermind of President Obama's opening to the Cuban regime, tell it, Americans are just pining to go to Cuba. Nothing must top feeling like Beyonce dancing away the night on the Malecon in quaint old Havana.

Few issues have as much bipartisan support as promoting freedom of Americans to travel to Cuba. Restricting travel is restricting freedom. https://t.co/ejlDFA8UvI

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) June 10, 2017

The facts on the ground tell a different story.

As Rhodes touts trips to Cuba's communist military dictatorship as somehow something in the line of 'freedom' in his new 'narrative, airline carriers are fleeing the island hellhole, for one and tourists are bailing out. According to Marketwatch:

Americans are less interested in travel to Cuba this year than they were in 2016, a survey from insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance found. Some 76% of the 1,514 respondents said they were not likely to plan a trip to Cuba in 2017 compared to 70% in 2016. Only 2% of those surveyed planned to visit Cuba in the next six months or by the end of 2017, the same as 2016 despite a projected increase in travelers from the country’s ministry of tourism. It also found that 60% of Americans said “would not like to travel to Cuba” compared to just 58% in 2016.

After briefly mentioning that the place doesn't have food or water, the Marketwatch reporter cited a source who suggests maybe it's 'confusion' about travel requirements from the U.S. side.

Sumers suggested confusion over the approved reasons to go to Cuba is keeping the average American visitor away still.

We're going to go with the food. And the lack of drinkable water. And Band-Aids. And toilet paper. And ATMs. And stinky hotel rooms. According to this Cuba-touting travel site, mosquito repellent, too. Apparently, you can't buy any in quaint old Havana. You're expected to get bit.

Other tourists have reported high entry and exit fees (now $160 just to get in), corrupt officials, a lack of decent accommodations, thieving airport officials, and a flood of hookers touting their bodies for sale. Why wouldn't there be corrupt officials seeking to shake The Gringos down? These people have been taught all their lives that America is the enemy and have stewed in a communist culture of envy for decades.

Combine it with the reality that Cuba is a military dictatorship with state goon beatings of dissidents, and the only logical conclusion out there is that this is no place for a vacation holiday.

Would you want to go to such an island hellhole? Ben Rhodes hypes it as a great thing, but the tourist after tourist finds it a different story.

As President Trump prepares to turn the screws on Cuba this coming Friday in Miami, tourists are beating him to it, voting with their feet.