Date: January 13, 2002
Source: The Times Of India
From backstreet.net
HAVANA: Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough thrilled their Cuban fans when they were spotted incognito at a
downtown Havana hotel, local press reported on Saturday.
The members of the US boy band were staying at the Hotel Nacional, where Dorough had arrived on Thursday and Richardson on
Friday. They were travelling with an entourage of 10 producers and agents.
The two singers left on Saturday for Cayo Largo, an island off Cuba's south-central coast, and were expected to return to the United
States on Sunday, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina reported.
The Backstreet Boys are widely popular among young Cubans, and their hits like I Want It That Way and Quit Playing Games (With
My Heart) are played daily on local radio stations and in Havana nightclubs.
Since the start of the year, a flood of US nationals have visited the Caribbean island in an unprecedented wave of tourists.
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson caused a stir on January 1 when he hurled Christmas decorations at reporters
who discovered him spending a New Year's vacation in the Cuban capital.
The New York-based US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council estimates that some 160,000 Americans visited the island in 2001 with or
without Washington's permission, twice as many tourists as in 2000.