International travel to Cuba fell to historic lows last year as the Caribbean nation’s broader economic woes weigh on an industry that’s a vital source of hard currency. — Bloomberg
HAVANA: One of the few functioning economic engines in Cuba is failing as the United States take steps to keep fuel and financing from reaching the island.
International travel to Cuba fell to historic lows last year, the national statistics institute reported on Monday, as the Caribbean nation’s broader economic woes weigh on an industry that’s a vital source of hard currency.
About 1.8 million travellers visited the island in 2025. That’s the lowest number in more than two decades, excluding the pandemic years of 2020 to 2022, when international travel was largely shut down.
Visitor arrivals fell 18% compared to 2024, and were down 62% from the record 4.7 million visitors the island welcomed in 2018.
“The perfect storm has hit Cuba,” said Paolo Spadoni, a social sciences professor at Augusta University, who studies the island and its tourism sector.
“It’s getting hit by external and internal factors that have come at the worst possible moment.”
Even before the latest US assault on its economy, Cuba was trapped in a deep recession and an economic crisis that led to sweeping power outages and shortages of basic goods.
Hoping to capture hard currency, the government has invested heavily in new hotels that few locals can afford and that now sit largely empty.
Last year, for example, a 42-story, 594-room luxury hotel – Torre K – opened in Havana, even as average hotel occupancy was running just above 20% nationwide, according to government statistics.
Cuba’s economic outlook has grown even more dire since Jan 3, when US special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and shut down critical fuel exports from the South American country to its ally in Havana.
US President Donald Trump is also threatening to impose tariffs on other nations that come to Cuba’s energy aid.
Even travellers holed up in government-run beach resorts, with their own generators and preferential access to supplies, are feeling the pinch.
Krista Craig, 46, from the Toronto area, has been travelling to Cuba since 2018 and returned again with her husband in December.
The resort she frequents in Cayo Coco, a spit of land on the island’s northern coast, is usually jammed with about 350 tourists. This time, there were fewer than 100.
“It went from being always full to virtually empty,” she said.
On this last visit, she took 38.5 kg of medicine, food and goods requested by the hotel staff. In particular, she said they needed muscle rubs, antibiotics and pain killers to treat the mosquito-borne illnesses that are sweeping Cuba.
While her resort was regularly fumigated and didn’t have mosquito issues, much of the staff said their families were suffering. — Bloomberg
