Cuba's tourism industry is rapidly collapsing as US sanctions pressure converges with chronic power shortages. The beaches of Cuba, once dubbed a dream vacation destination, are turning increasingly empty.
Tourist Arrivals Halve in a Year, with Canada and Russia Pulling Back
According to a report by Spanish-language outlet Infobae on Tuesday citing Cuba's national statistics office, 328,608 foreign tourists visited Cuba between January and April this year. The figure represents a 55.8% drop from the same period last year.
Visitors in March and April numbered just 35,561 and 30,551, respectively. Monthly arrivals fell short of the daily average of foreign visitors to South Korea in the first quarter of this year, which stood at approximately 53,000.
By country, visitors from Canada, Cuba's largest tourism market, plunged 63.8% year-on-year to 125,444. Russian tourists also dropped 56.7% to 21,050. Even countries that had recently shown growth, including Argentina and China, posted declines exceeding 20%. Return visits by Cuban expatriates living abroad fell 41.2%.
US Blockade, Power Crisis and Anti-Government Protests Make Tourism Recovery Distant
Locally, the view that intensified US sanctions have fueled Cuba's tourism slump is gaining traction.
President Trump has ramped up pressure on Cuba since returning to power. The US began blockading Cuba's oil supply chain in January, and recently filed an indictment linking former Council of State President Raul Castro, known as a power figure in Cuba, to the 1996 shootdown of a civilian aircraft.
Washington has also forward-deployed an aircraft carrier strike group in the Caribbean. Cuba lies just 145 kilometers from the United States, a distance reachable by plane in little more than an hour.
The US has placed GAESA, the military-industrial conglomerate at the heart of Cuba's economy, on its sanctions list and pushed ahead with additional sanctions on senior officials in the energy, defense and finance sectors. The Cuban government has defined this as "economic warfare" and is pushing back strongly.
As a result, Cuba has been struggling for months with massive blackouts and fuel shortages. Hospital and school operations have been disrupted, while shortages of food and medicine are deepening. In the capital Havana, embers of anti-government protests continue to smolder.
CNN noted that the Trump administration is using the Cuba issue as a card for diplomatic achievements. The interpretation follows that, having failed to produce visible results in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, Washington is seeking to shake the Cuban regime to build political accomplishments.
