Tourists flocking to Cuba 'before the Americans come'

Tourists flocking to Cuba 'before the Americans come'
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ and PETER ORSI, Associated Press | March 22, 2015 | Updated: March 22, 2015 11:45pm

HAVANA (AP) — Bookings to Cuba jumped 57 percent for one New York tour operator in the weeks after Washington said it would renew ties with Havana. In February, they were up 187 percent; and so far this month, nearly 250 percent.

The boom is just one sign that the rush is on to see Cuba now — before, as many predict, McDonald's claims a spot in Old Havana and Starbucks moves in on Cubita, the island's premium coffee brand.

The sense that detente will unleash an invasion of Yankee tourists and change the unique character of one of the world's last remaining bastions of communism is shared by many travelers flocking here.

"Cuba has a very authentic atmosphere which you see nowhere else in the world," Gay Ben Aharon of Israel said while walking through Revolution Square. "I wanted to see it before the American world ... but also the modern Western world comes here."

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http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Tourists-flocking-to-Cuba-before-the-Americans-6151982.php