Nearly three-quarters of Cuba’s hotels have been shuttered and the island’s tourism sector has been brought to “almost total paralysis” by sanctions and fuel shortages from United States, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said recently.
Detailing the scale of the tourism crisis for the first time, Marrero said seven international chains, responsible for about half of all hotel rooms, had left the island.
Tourism had been Cuba’s second-largest source of foreign currency earnings, employing more than 300,000 people before the crisis deepened this year.
Today, Old Havana’s streets, once clogged with tourists seeking sun, salsa and stirred cocktails, are quiet.
Some 73% of hotels have been closed, Marrero said, and about 25,000 workers have been left “in a vulnerable situation”.
Following Havana’s announcement in February of an aviation fuel shortage, Canadian, Russian and European airlines suspended flights to the island.
The sector’s troubles accelerated after the US imposed sanctions in May on the military-run conglomerate GAESA, prompting several international operators to end hotel management agreements to avoid US penalties.
Although Spanish groups Melia and Iberostar continued operating hotels in partnership with Cuba’s Tourism Ministry, the US widened its sanctions in July.
Official figures show tourist arrivals dropped 58% between January and June compared with the same period a year earlier. – AFP
