``How many $4 mojitos will be drunk? How many $8 music CDs will be sold? How many $50-a-night hookers will be hired?'' asked a Miami travel agent who handles charter flights to Havana.

Complaints of price-gouging for the five-day trip that begins Jan. 21 have been strongest among American television networks, some of which have booked entire floors in Havana hotels at double the normal prices.

``They're making an extra $20,000 in jacked-up room costs for my audio people alone,'' said an executive for NBC television news, which has reserved all of the Ambos Mundo Hotel and half of the nearby Santa Isabel. ``I guess they just want to squeeze the rich capitalist media.''

But such grievances get little sympathy from people like John Kavulich, head of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which monitors economic developments and opportunities on the island.

``What happens to hotel prices in Vail during Christmas season? They go up!'' Kavulich said. ``Instead of criticizing, we should be applauding the fact that Cuban managers understand the laws of supply and demand.''

Tourism in a lull

John Paul's first visit to the last communist nation in the Western Hemisphere is not expected to affect Cuba's regular tourism, now in the lull between the Christmas holidays and the February-March peak.

``There's always room available in Havana in January,'' Kiechel said. ``It's when you get into the deep of the Canadian and European winters in February that you have to worry. And even then, for the right amount of dollars, you can still get anything.''

People going to Cuba for the pope's visit will indeed find themselves shelling out dollars -- foreigners must pay everything in hard currency -- from the time they step on the tarmac at Jose Marti International Airport.

Although Cuban government and church officials say they expect 10,000 foreign pilgrims and 4,000 journalists for the papal visit, travel agents who handle Cuba predict that the total will be closer to 10,000.

Tourists normally spend about $1,000 a week in Cuba, putting the potential revenue from 10,000 extra visitors at $10 million. But journalists are not normal tourists, and these are definitely not normal days.

Landings profitable

Even Havana airport officials are rubbing their hands at the prospect of increased income, from landing fees for the half-dozen corporate jets from U.S. television networks that will fly in the likes of Dan Rather, Bernard Shaw, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw.

Hotel rates have doubled and more for the days around the pope's visit, with the top-ranked Nacional charging $250 and up for rooms that normally go for $125, and already-expensive car rental rates of $600 to $800 a week have jumped by 30 percent to 40 percent, journalists already in Havana say.

Restaurant prices appear to be holding steady, but fares fordomestic flights to three provincial cities where the pope will celebrate Masses are expected to jump as journalists try to get out to cover the papal ceremonies.

Cubacell executives have said their 700 cellular telephones available for temporary rental are just about all reserved for the papal visit despite stiff fees and deposits that could put a one-week contract at about $1,000.

With the allure of Cuban cigars at an all-time high, Havana can likely expect that most papal visitors will buy at least one box. At an average price of $150 a box, the 10,000 visitors could easily buy and burn $1.5 million worth of Habanos.

More revenue sources

Cuba's $12 airport departure tax could bring in an extra $120,000 by itself, and if the average visitor buys $10 worth of keepsakes and knickknacks, that would bring in $100,000 more.

The Cuban government is already selling $20 posters and $2 postcards showing John Paul and President Fidel Castro at their 1996 meeting in the Vatican, $1 bumper stickers and a $40 silver coin commemorating the forthcoming visit.

Also on sale are T-shirts bearing the images of Castro and the pontiff flanking a Cuban flag -- $8 for plain white, $10 for colored versions. The church is handing out its own version -- bearing the pope's image under the words ``Welcome, Messenger of Peace, justice and reconciliation'' -- free of charge.

Still under negotiation: videos, books and a special line of cigars, probably made at the same factory that makes H. Uppmanns, with rings and other decorations marking the pope's historic trip.

``Well, at least the Cubans are not producing Pope-on-a-Rope,'' said Kavulich, referring to a soap bar bearing the papal likeness sold during John Paul's last trip to New York. ``They're showing a lot of decorum on marketing.''

Fees for networks

Cuban officials are showing a bit less elegance in their dealings with journalists, however, sparking a round of complaints so far kept in whispers to avoid complicating the situation even more.

Havana has told several U.S. and European networks that they must pay $100,000 each for the rights to use any part of the coverage of the papal trip that Cuban Television will provide on satellite.

Countries visited by the pope traditionally provide such coverage free of charge, although on occasion a few poor African and Asian nations have slapped on small fees to cover their own costs.

The $100,000 does not include the stiff fees -- $10,000 and up per 15-minute bloc -- that Cuban Television has traditionally charged visiting TV crews to transmit their reports to their home stations via satellite.

Most of the networks will bring their own transmission equipment -- ``The Cubans have told the networks: If you got it, bring it,'' Kavulich said -- but smaller stations will have to pay the Cubans to put up their signals.

A budget strain

``I telephoned Havana to see about sending a news crew, but the $15,000 they wanted was, like, my entire budget for 1998,'' said the news director of an El Salvador television-radio station.

But each of the 2,500 to 3,000 journalists expected to cover the papal visit also will be required to pay $60 to be accredited by the Cuban government's International Press Center -- even though the center itself will apparently play little or no role in the visit.

Havana historian Eusebio Leal has been asking foreign journalists for $250 per half-hour interview, several journalists reported.

And one producer for Italy's RAI television network said Cuban officials told him in November that each station covering the pope would be required to hire a two-man Cuban camera crew for its team, at $500 per day, to guarantee that the visitors have access to ``local expertise.''

``I told them they were crazy, made a rude gesture and they never raised that issue again,'' the producer said. ``I don't see them as greedy, just inexperienced on the real dollar cost of services.''

There are more charges:

Long-distance phone rates will apparently remain stable at $3 to $4 per minute for calls to the United States and $6 to $10 for calls to Europe, said television network executives in contact with Havana.

One taxi ride to the airport.

Ca-Ching. $20.

One airport exit tax.

Ca-Ching. $12.