Cafes, ATMs, Luxury Cars Are Evidence of Tourism Boom in Havana.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Nancy San Martin

May 27--HAVANA--A state-of-the-art airport with daily flights from Canada and from Germany, Spain and other European nations. Newly installed ATMs in colonial buildings. A cybercafe in the Capitolio.

More than 40 years after the Cuban Revolution, Havana finally appears to be coming of age as the vivid reminders of a nation that had been stuck in a decades-old time warp begin to fade away.

Classic American automobiles that served as pre-Castro stamps now share the road with shiny Hyundais, Daewoos and Mercedes-Benzes.

Crumbling structures built during the colonial period that had been serving as crowded tenements known as solares have been converted into quaint restaurants and hostels with room prices ranging from $45 to $175 per night.

And construction projects along the Malecon and in Miramar are going up in the architectural style of the glass buildings along Brickell Avenue.

The transformation that began in earnest within the last two years is turning this capital into the heart of a more modern Cuba.

Although Cuba's standard of living still has not recovered completely from the collapse of the economy caused by the withdrawal of Soviet aid in 1990, a tourism boom is helping to improve the economic picture, at least for those who live in Havana.

"Tourism has provided the only steady source of income," said Ana Lopez, director of...

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