Even before the latest US assault on its economy, Cuba was trapped in a deep recession and an economic crisis that’s led to sweeping power outages and shortages of basic goods
By Jim Wyss
One of the few functioning economic engines in Cuba is failing as the US is taking 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 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 travelers visited the island in 2025. That’s the lowest number in more than two decades, excluding the pandemic years of 2020-2022, when international travel was largely shut down.
Visitor arrivals fell 18 per cent compared to 2024, and were down 62 per cent 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’s 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 known as Torre K opened in Havana, even as average hotel occupancy was running just above 20 per cent nationwide, according to government statistics.
Cuba’s economic outlook has grown even more dire since Jan 3, when US special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás 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 travelers holed up in government-run beach resorts — with their own generators and preferential access to supplies — are feeling the pinch.
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Krista Craig, 46, from the Toronto area, has been traveling 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 85 pounds (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.
Craig said she had second thoughts about the trip, concerned that much of her money ends up in the coffers of the authoritarian government. But she cited the people on the island as reason for her return.
“The workers at the hotel are supporting extended families, and they are so grateful for people who continue to travel there,” she said. “They are barely making ends meet and they definitely would not if tourism continues to drop.”
Canada remains the biggest source of tourism, followed by Cubans living abroad and Russians, the government said.
Cuba blames the tourism slump on long-running US economic sanctions that raise costs and make it difficult for the island to import goods.
In December, Economy and Planning Minister Joaquín Alonso told lawmakers tourism was projected to pull in $917 million in 2025, short of the $1.2 billion target. Still, the industry is one of the main pillars of the service sector, which accounts for about 70 per cent of gross domestic product.
The Trump administration has made it more difficult for US citizens to travel to the island, and tighter immigration policies mean Cubans with green cards are wary of going home to visit, Spadoni said.
Washington is punishing foreigners, too. Europeans who travel to Cuba, for example, are excluded from the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, which gives them the right to enter the US without a traditional visa.
The tourism dearth makes Cuba a regional outlier. Places like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, as well as beach destinations in the Greater Antilles, recently reported record-breaking tourism numbers. And many of the smaller islands throughout the Caribbean are seeing strong demand.
James Hepple, managing director of Tourism Analytics, which studies Caribbean travel trends, said it’s no surprise that Cuba is getting beat by its competition. “Their hotels may be physically attractive and they’re on beautiful beaches, but the business model doesn’t work,” he said.
The army controls most of the tourism industry, but has been overbuilding and is squeezed for cash, which means property maintenance and food quality are slipping. “The money isn’t coming in so they can’t invest, so there’s this downward spiral,” he said.
Perhaps more worrisome, Hepple said, are signs that petty crime is ramping up on an island long renowned for its security. “I used to visit Cuba and you felt very safe there,” he said. “Now that’s not the case. Street crime is up and harassment of tourists is up, because everyone needs a dollar.”
Darren Toderan, 63, from Vancouver, has been traveling to Cuba since 1993 and has made friends across the island. While he stays at a resort on the southern coast, he makes a point to visit families in town and take them food, medicine and other supplies. He’s witnessed how they go days without electricity and lack just about everything. Like Craig, he always travels with extra supplies to give away.
“Do I want to support the communist regime? No,” he said. “But without tourists the population suffers even worse.”
