Eusebio Leal Meets with UN Chief
HAVANA TIMES — The Historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal, on Wednesday visited the UN headquarters in New York where he held a courtesy contact with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, reported the Prensa Latina news agency.
Leal also gave a lecture at the New York Public Library on the progress of the restoration program that he is leading in Havana’s historic center, declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1982.
Criticism from South Florida concerning his visit didn’t prevent Leal from also visiting the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan and Modern Art (MOMA), as well as the academic institution the Americas Society and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
eusebio leal should try and get some foreign investors for backpacker hotels in habana vieja. all that is left of many of the neo-classical or baroque buildings of of old havana are the facades which are not irreplaceable. they are just brick and old plaster. anything can be built behind the facades. i don´t think that the ministry of tourism has done their sums on backpacker tourists. the australian numbers from 1993: japanese-$4,000. backpackers $10,000 spent in an average 2 month stay. thailand gets 15 million tourists/year and at least 1/3 must be backpackers. if cuba could get 5 million backpacker tourists/year spending $3,000 that would be $15 billion. every country in the region would benefit from backpacker tourists if cuba got into it just as the countries around thailand get backpacker tourists from thailand. i can see states like louisiana benefitting from cuban backpacker tourism. if there were millions of backpacker tourists in cuba the southern states would be lobbying washington for flights, and maybe even ferry services. if you need a friend in washington, buy a dog. harry truman.