A week after back-to-back storms island-hopped through the Caribbean with varying degrees of severity, a tourism ad ran prominently in the main section of a major U.S. daily newspaper.

A black-and-white photo showed a pair of well-sculpted lovers reclining on a sandy beach, placid surf at their toes. Above the beachcombers was this invitation from the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board: ``Come on over we've weathered the storm.''

Already?

Almost as fast as Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike passed through the Caribbean -- dishing out damage to homes, churches and trees -- tourism officials and analysts say the region's main industry is swiftly getting its footing. Since the Atlantic hurricane season began June 1, an estimated 500 people have died in storms and their aftermath. Most of the deaths were in the Caribbean.

Still, many hotels are now open. Flights have resumed. Cruise ships are making the rounds.

''For those islands that have been directly impacted, it's amazing how quick they can come back from a physical standpoint,'' said Scott Smith, senior vice president of PKF Hotel Consulting in Atlanta.

Of all the tourism-dependent islands in the Caribbean, the Turks and Caicos took the hardest hit. Here, more than 540,000 tourists visited in 2006, spending $260 million, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

Hurricane Hanna, a Category 3 storm, stalled overhead for three days, dumping torrential rains and causing flooding. Hurricane Ike, a Category 4 storm, caused more damage, wrecking about 80 percent of the homes on Grand Turk. Parts of Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos are still without electricity, and some areas are without running water and telephone services.

But the tourist destination of Providenciales dodged the bullet, and the official message is that the tourism industry is back.

According to the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board, 17 out of 38 hotel operations of Turks and Caicos Hotel Association members were open as of Sept. 15. The remaining hotels are scheduled to open next month, or by Nov. 15. Some were closed for regularly scheduled maintenance when the storms blew through.

Some of the smaller resorts on Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos are assessing the damage, Jennifer Myres, a tourism spokeswoman, said. They could open by the end of the year.

The cruise terminal on Grand Turk is scheduled to reopen Oct. 8. A spokeswoman said Carnival Cruise Line, which canceled the port of call after Ike's pass in early September, expects to resume its cruises to Grand Turk on that date.

BAHAMAS, LABADEE

For the most part, the Bahamas was spared by Ike, although the storm damaged homes in the Family Islands in the southeastern portion of the island nation. The fierce winds knocked out water and electricity on Great Inagua, the hardest hit among the islands.

Water and almost all power has been restored to the settlement of Matthew Town. The southernmost Bahamian island, with some 1,000 residents, is a magnet for globe-trotting birders, many of whom stop there to study the colony of West Indian flamingos.

Inagua's little-known neighbor to the south, Labadee -- a northern Haiti cruise destination -- went unscathed, even though hundreds died elsewhere in Haiti, mostly during floods.

The Labadee cruise port is intact and functioning, and cruise ships are bringing tourists. Royal Caribbean canceled a few stops on the island due to weather but quickly resumed service.

Cuba was also walloped by the storms with major damage to homes, crops and the electrical system in the western and eastern portions of the island. Although many residents have returned to their damaged houses, they must make due with the lack of electricity and exposure to the elements.

But the city of Havana didn't sustain serious damage. In the weeks after the storms, a solid flow of European and Asian tourists filled Havana, lounging at outdoor cafes or walking cobblestone streets, largely unaffected by the natural disasters.

REPAIRS A PRIORITY

There are scattered tourist hotels in the areas hit hard by the storms. Making repairs to the hotels, which help bring in hard currency, has been a government priority.

Jamaica and the Cayman Islands -- other tourism-dependent islands that were touched by the storms -- saw little damage. Tourist spots are up and running, officials say.

Even if many countries in the region escaped wide-scale damage, there still could be some fallout for Caribbean tourism, according to one industry analyst. He said tourists could lump unaffected islands with those that were hit -- say, the Lesser Antilles with the Greater Antilles.

''The problem is the stigma [of the hurricanes] that remains,'' said Smith.

But he was optimistic: ``Things will be back to normal by November.''

This story was supplemented by a Miami Herald reporter in Cuba whose name is being withheld because the journalist lacked the visa required by the Cuban government to report from the island.

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