The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 121

14- A THE TAMPA TRIBUNE. Thursday, October 8, 1981 STATE. QCcrmedy-'Sefsofe (ja((ept9 Jnc. Opening Sfiozu and (Reception JarlheAztisi I f-: Hicasko Tridky, Oct T9jtm "We want to compete with Miami. Ve want to compete against Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas.

We want to be the new hot spot in the Caribbean, and we think we can do it" Jose Fraga, Tourist Official refrtsBaeote itio3 n. S6 sircet teznpfe terrace jshene 9O03J53 Jzne 'fmtt(fefzf on prists Want some good advice? Read Ann Landers in The Tribune and Dear Abby In The Times. From Page 1A world," says Cesar de la Terga Tabio, administrator of Cuba's first hotel on Cayo Largo, where the government plans a tourist complex that would accommodate 5,000 people. "We're going to revolutionize the image of Cuba, and we're going to make a revolution in tourism for Cuba." Cuban officials say business is booming already, with most tourists coming from Canada, Britain and Europe. They say tourism in Cuba is approaching pre-revolution levels, and the government plans to encourage more visitors by opening two key resorts as "free ports," meaning that tourists could fly in without passports, visas or customs inspections.

Dade County and Caribbean tourism officials say it's too early to worry about Cuba's new focus on tourism. But it is already siphoning off some visitors from south Florida. "Miami is for old people," said Paula Tasse, a 29-year-old lawyer from Quebec, who was vacationing in Varadero recently. "When I'm 70, I'll go to Miami." "I wouldn't go back to Miami for a vacation if you paid me," said George Lister, a Toronto marketing executive. "Number one, Cuba's cheap.

But (Miami's) beaches are absolutely filthy, the overcrowding is ridiculous and now Miami is Murder Inc. USA. (Miami has) tremendous racial problems and everyone you talk to wants to sell you dope or (have you) take it to Canada for them I'm definitely taking all my vacations in Cuba now." Last year, international tourism brought $100 million into the Cuban economy, making it the fifth largest income-producing source, lagging behind sugar cane, tobacco, nickel exports and other industries. Castro is pushing to increase tourism because it is a prime source for hard currency, which Cuba doesn't receive from socialist countries. "We don't have oil, we don't have riches or natural resources," says Gary Gonzalez, director of international tourism for the Instituto Nacional de Turismo, Cuba's tourism ministry.

"Our main natural resource is the sun. We can always guarantee that This is an economic. decision, not necessarily a political one." Fidel Castro himself said: "The country must open its doors more and more to the rest of the world; relations with the rest of the world will increase progressively. They have to, because offer direct flights to Cuba. American Airways Charter Co.

of Hialeah offers several flights a week from Miami to Varadero and Havana, including a supper tour to the Tropicana Nightclub. About a dozen other firms fly America tourists to Cuba from airports across the United States. But even with 200,000 Visitors, Cuba is far behind South Florida and other tourist spots. For example, Dade County welcomed 2.34 million foreigners last year. According to the Caribbean Tourism Association, more than 1.1 million tourists flew to the Bahamas in 1980, 395,000 to Jamaica, 492,000 to Bermuda, 700,000 to the U.S.

Virgin Islands and 301,000 to the Dominican Republic v. Cuba's tourism was ahead of these countries: Antigua, Haiti, Aruba, Martinique, the British Virgin Islands, 120,000, and the Cayman Islands, 120,000. Venezuela received just 15,000 more tourists than Cuba did last year. Tourism officials in Dade County find Cuba's plans "interesting," but no threat. "They're going to be attracting a different type of crowd, like the kind of people who go to Jamaica or Haiti for that Caribbean island atmosphere," said Arthur Ellick, director of tourism research for Metro-Dade County.

"Miami is more cosmopolitan, and those are two different types of clientele. We also have the advantage of connecting flights. And there's always the association that Cuba is a Communist regime." Ken Heinrich of the Bahamas News Bureau said, "We have no concern about them at this point, because we realize their development is several years off down the line, perhaps it could affect us. But it takes years to build an established destination." But Gonzalez and other Cuban officials feel Cuba is on the brink of a tourist explosion. Among the things Cuba is doing to get ready include: A new "Club Med" type of complex for international visitors only is being built on Cayo Largo, an island on the south coast surrounded by turquoise waters and edged with a 15-mile beach.

Officials hope to open the first hotel in December. And for the first time, the Cuban government is also trying to attract foreign investors to build more hotels and share in the profits. The government plans an increase of more than 800 per cent in the number of hotel rooms on that island, from 59 rooms to 5,000 in 10 years. 0 I V) throughout the world, the tendency is toward more and more communication, more and more contact. "Tourism can be developed because it Is one of the country's economic resources, deriving from the resources of our sky, our seas and our atmosphere; we don't produce oil, so we have to exploit country's sun, sea, air and natural beauties.

But don't let anyone imagine that it will ever be a tourism of gambling, casinos, prostitution or things like that." In the 1950s, Cuba attracted one-third of all tourists who came to the Gonzalez said. Now Cuba wants a new tourist explosion, but the focus is on sunshine, beaches, sports good, clean wholesome fun and the government is trying to eradicate the image of Cuba that lingers from the 1950s. In those days, Cuba was a place to cut loose," where foreigners did things that wouldn't be tolerated at home. Havana was a den of iniquity, with gambling casinos, mobsters, streetwalkers, thieves, naked rhumba dancers and strip joints. The revolution in 1959 put an end to all that, but it also strangled tourism.

In 1957, 272,000 people visited Cuba; in the 1960s, the number dropped to just 3,000 a year. Since 1974,. when the government began exploring ways to attract more foreign tourists, the tourist trade has been steadily increasing. Last year, 200,000 foreigners visited Cuba, 87,000 short of the 1957 level, according to Gonzalez. Nearly half, 44 per cent, came from Canada.

Seventeen percent came from Latin America, 14 percent came from Europe, and 9 percent came from the United States. Most tourists come on package tours, which Your Choice $30 Beautiful 14K gold charms make their own fashion statement. As nice to give as they are to receive. Large selections also available at $10 and 515. Chains available from $15.

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Ex-Sen. Stone Says He's On Appointment List I 1 (J U.I1..L...U, Ul Senate to approve such radio broadcasts two years ago. But the House didn't endorse the plan at that time. When Stone left the Senate back in January, it was rumored he might land a job as an assistant secretary of state or ambassador to Israel, among other posts. But Stone, who lost his bid for reelection ya.

a Democratic primary battle with Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter, never won art administration job and joined a Washington law firm. Novvlt appears the former Florida senator, who gained national prominence as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will get such a post. Under current Stone would head an 11-member commission which would determine the format and operate the radio broadcasts to Cuba. Stone said he couldn't say which people he has talked to in the administration. "I've already said too much," Stone said.

By BRUCE DUDLEY Tribune Staff Writer WASHINGTON Former Sen. Richard Stone, confirmed Wednesday he is being considered by President Reagan to head an 11-member commission to oversee radio broadcasts aimed at Cuba. The planned project, patterned after Radio Free Europe, has been nicknamed "Radio Free Cuba" although its official name will be Radio Marti. Stone, who is now practicing law in Washington, said he has talked to Reagan administration officials about the job. But, he said, "I can't say anything until something is made official." The White House has not made any announcement concerning a Stone appointment.

But one State Department official said an announcement could be made in one or two weeks. The former senator said he is very much supportive of the project and noted that he got the Bundy Case Psychologist May Be Fraud NEW YORK (AP) A psychologist who examined convicted murderer Theodore Bundy and John Lennon's admitted killer, Mark David Chapman, has been charged with lying about his professional credentials. Milton Kline of Chappaqua, N.Y., was indicted Friday on a charge of committing perjury during a Nov. 14, 1979 hearing in Manhattan state Supreme Court, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said at a news conference Tuesday. Kline lied when he said he had a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, had done post-graduate work in neuropsychiatry at New York University and had psychoanalytic training at the White Institute of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis in New York, the indictment alleged.

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