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• Travel and Tourism
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• 11 / 30 / 2008

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According to the establishment's general director, Ivan Nicolas Melo, the Ministry of Tourism and the hotel chain Gran Caribe have designed a broad program of activities to celebrate the hotel's 100th anniversary on January 3, 2009.

In that regard, he noted that the building's façade and interior were restored, and traditions like coffee and fritter served in the portal, which accompanied the inauguration ceremony in 1909, were rescued.

Melo added that a commemorative plaque would be unveiled on January 3, a dance will be held in the main terraces, and an art exhibition by Cuban painters will be inaugurated.

The Hotel Plaza, which houses the Cuban-Spanish Cultural Society, received the 2002 Entrepreneurial Excellence Award and was the first hotel in Latin America to receive the Ibero-American Quality Award.

Its most famous guests over the last century include ballerinas Ana Pavlova (Russia) and Isadora Duncan (United States), German physicist Albert Einstein and world-renowned writers. Cuban chess player Jose Raul Capablanca played there during the First Chess Tournament.

(PL)