HABANA LIBRE AND SANTIAGO DE CUBA HOTELS

                   BY MIGUEL COMELLAS

                   THE emblematic and centrally located Habana Libre Hotel has now
                   become part of the Sol Meliá group, a Spanish pioneer in investing in the
                   emerging Cuban tourism industry that finished the year 2000 managing
                   20 hotels, the majority of which were built during the last few years over
                   the length and breadth of the country.

                   As part of its hotel strategy on the Caribbean’s biggest island, Gabriel
                   Escarrer’s company took over the management of Tryp Hoteles in
                   Cuba, another Spanish group that managed hotels in the capital and on
                   Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo, in northern Ciego de Avila province,
                   425 kilometers east of Havana.

                   Now Sol Meliá manages hotels in Havana, Varadero, Cayo Largo, Ciego
                   de Avila, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba and could soon take over the
                   management of a new and grand hotel in the southern city of
                   Cienfuegos, 256 kilometers from the capital.

                   All these four- and five-star hotels situated in main beach resorts, places
                   of interest and cities, belong to the Cubanacán, Gran Caribe and Gaviota
                   national hotel groups.

                   In her annual meeting with the specialized press, Carmen Martínez
                   Terán, commercial director of urban hotels for the Sol Meliá group,
                   stated that the year 2000 had not been a spectacular year for anybody,
                   due to the high oil prices that provoked a rise in airline prices, the
                   fluctuating euro and the confusion over the so-called Millennium Bug
                   affecting computers. Nevertheless, the city-based Meliá Cohiba and
                   Meliá Habana Hotels and the Santiago de Cuba experienced growth of
                   15% in the territorial market, without forgetting the recent addition to the
                   group of the Habana Libre, an extremely important asset.

                   Last year Cuba received 1.8 million tourists out of a projected two
                   million, which was not reached due to the causes mentioned above.
                   However, there was 10% growth in comparison with 1999. Between
                   1996 and 2000, the average annual increase in visitors was 18.6%, while
                   in the rest of the Caribbean it was between 3.% and 4%

                   Martínez Terán explained that with the recent additions to the group’s
                   ownership (the Habana Libre and the Santiago de Cuba), both five-star,
                   they have made important changes in the way service is provided, in
                   accordance with Sol Meliá’s international standards.