The city of Cambridge cleared off the parking meters on the North side of Mass. Ave to accommodate their buses, but otherwise these operators are completely independent. They pay no fee to Harvard and for the most part have no communication with the University at all.

"It doesn't cost anything [to stop at Harvard], and that's big attraction," says Dan Finn, whose New World Tours designs custom tours of the Boston area. "It's also a good lunch stop because everyone can go into Harvard Square."

Evie F. Jamison, a bus driver for G&W Tours, says that her tours stop at Harvard for about one hour of a one-day tour, with tourists spending about 30 minutes on a tour and 30 minutes shopping in the Square.

"They love Harvard; they keep asking, 'Are we near Harvard Square?'" Jamison says. "They always want to see MIT and Harvard, but when we get to MIT they just want to drive by."

Jamison says that tour guides will often point out the Coop and other Square shops.

"For some reason they always seem to know about the Coop," she says.

Money, Money, Money

Over 1.2 million tourists visit Cambridge annually, leaving a minimum of $1 billion in the city's economy. In a city where Harvard is by far the biggest visitor draw, shops around the Square scramble to get a piece of the tourist pie.

"It's really helpful when the tour bus stops right outside," says Ballestas, whose store faces the tour bus parking zone across Mass. Ave. "The bus driver just sort of herds them in."

Across the Square, Coop President Jeremiah P. Murphy '73 says that he doesn't do "anything in particular" to bring in tourist business, but adds that "I think a lot of people who visit Harvard Square eventually come through the Coop."

"The key to tourist business is how well you get the busdriver to direct people to your door," Murphy said. "There definitely are people in the area who try to convince the bus driver to do that."

Area merchants say that some establishments do cater specifically to tour guides in the hopes of bringing in large groups.

"We had a group of Koreans come in here, and the tour leader asked if we gave discounts, and we said no--everything's priced as marked," Ballestas says. "They all just walked out."

Use of the Harvard logo on merchandise was almost completely unrestricted until 1989, when the Trademark Office was created to tackle "offensive" use of the Harvard name and begin to collect copyright royalties.

"You cannot imagine--it is inconceivable--how many people are attempting to register the name Harvard," says Harvard's U.S. Trademark Coordinator Enrique J. Calixto. "It took a while to convince the University this was something they needed to do. The University didn't want to be seen as exploiting the Harvard name."