Haiti has the history, culture and turquoise beaches to draw masses of tourists. But decades of political strife have kept it from tapping that potential.

  BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY

  PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Outside Haiti's Ministry of Tourism, several employees were in the parking lot as bullets began to fly. Some laughed nervously, some
  flinched, some took cover behind walls and parked cars.

  Across the street, police in Robocop riot gear fired shots into the air and launched tear gas to disperse thousands of antigovernment demonstrators
  advancing on the National Palace.

  For the ministry employees, it was another outbreak of street violence that in recent months made their job doubly difficult.

  Even when calm reigns, Haiti struggles to attract tourists because of its image of poverty and despair. When political tumult strikes, tourists virtually
  disappear.

  In the current turmoil, tourism is nearly dead, with most of the visitors being Haitians who live abroad. But the 30 ministry professionals whose job is to
  persuade foreigners to come to Haiti say they are forging ahead.

  ''We are still promoting Haiti,'' said Pierre Mathurin, director general of the Ministry of Tourism. ``We are promoting it to the Haitian community, to the North
  American community and to Europe.''

  DAILY FLIGHTS

  American Airlines operates four flights daily from Miami, one from Fort Lauderdale, one from Orlando, two from New York and one from Boston.

  ''They don't come empty,'' Mathurin said, but a recent survey of those flights reveals plenty of open seats.

  Haiti has great tourism potential, offering turquoise beaches, ancient castles and a rich mixture of French and African cultures. No other place in the
  Americas has remained as true to Africa, and Haitians are fond of saying Africans travel to Haiti today to find a motherland of centuries ago.

  ''I think it's a beautiful place, with lots of potential,'' said Andreea Kvistad, 31, of Norway. `You combine the mountains and the sea, and you see why it's
  very nice.''

  Andreea and her husband, John, 38, are a rarity in Haiti these days. He is a diplomat and she an accountant born and raised in Romania. They loaded up
  their backpacks, flew to the neighboring Dominican Republic, then came to Haiti to take in the sights.

  ADDED INTEREST

  ''I like the combination of a laid-back holiday in the Dominican Republic combined with a culturally interesting place like Haiti,'' John Kvistad said. ``I would
  be bored just going to the Dominican Republic.''

  But substandard infrastructure, corruption, political crisis, drug trafficking, class and racial polarization and many other ills have long keep Haiti on the
  margins of the tourism world.

  Today no replacement has been named for Tourism Minister Martine Deverson after his recent resignation, and the official website that touts Haiti as a
  desirable tourist destination is down.

  ''Dear visitor,'' reads www.haititourisme.org. ``We regret to inform you that Haiti Tourisme is offline until further notice. Thank you.''

  There is some hope ahead, said Georges Belin, director of investments for the tourism ministry.

  RESORT PROJECTS

  New hotels are planned, and resort projects are in the works that may help Haiti get a piece of the tourism action that neighbors such as the Dominican
  Republic and Jamaica enjoy.

  According to Belin, upward of 22 private tourism investment projects are in the pipeline.

  He said the projects range from a proposed 15-room luxury hotel in the southern port of Les Cayes to Temptation Beach Resort & Golf Club, a complex of
  five 100-room hotels with a marina, a small airport and an 18-hole golf course. Cost: $126 million.

  Belin said a Haitian firm with U.S. investors known as Gonave S.A. plans to build the complex on state-owned property on the western half of Gonave
  Island, northwest of Port-au-Prince.

  He said there's also a firm that wants to reopen the long-boarded-up Club Med in the seaside village of Montrouis, north of the capital, and that some
  cruise lines have plans to begin docking ships in southwestern Jacmel in August.

  But there are doubters.

  ''For some reason, the government has not done enough to promote tourism,'' said Jacqualine Labrom, owner and operator of Voyages Lumiére tours.
  ``They had a big master plan for tourism back in 1990, and most of it has never come to be.''

  ''It's just so frustrating,'' said Labrom, a native of England. ``The government has not done enough to promote tourism. The potential here is
  unbelievable.''