Tourism in Cuba hasn’t been able to get back on its feet. The so-called engine of the Cuban economy, hit hard by the pandemic, remains mired in a worrying decline that has dispelled its semblance of recovery and shattered the government’s plans.
The official figures leave no room for doubt, nor do the beaches and streets once crowded with tourists today display a very different image. This, even though the government has repeatedly emphasized tourism as an economic engine and has opted for high investment, which is out of step with the reality of the sector and the country.
In such a difficult situation — conditioned by the multi-crisis on the island that has been going on for several years — the FITCuba 2025 International Tourism Fair opened its doors, the main showcase for Cuba’s ailing tourism industry.
The event, which takes place every year around this time, is being held at Havana’s Morro-Cabaña Historic Park and will feature China as the guest of honor. According to authorities, FITCuba aims to be a “strategic platform” to revive ties with different markets and reposition the country as an attractive and competitive destination.
Below, a look at the current state of tourism in Cuba, a sector in decline that urgently needs a change of direction if it hopes to return to being the driving force it once was or, at least, halt its decline in recent years.
Tourists in a nosedive
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The most visible and popular indicator for analyzing the performance of tourism is quite clear: Cuba has seen a sustained decline in tourist arrivals, which contrasts with the boom in other destinations in the region, such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
After surpassing 4 million visitors in the years before the pandemic — with 2017 peaking at around 4.7 million — and losing the momentum brought by the brief thaw with Washington, tourism on the island felt the impact of COVID-19. It hasn’t been the same since.
After the logical drop in 2020 and 2021, 2022 showed signs of a slight recovery with the arrival of 1.6 million tourists, a figure that rose to 2.4 million in 2023. However, last year saw a decline with just 2.2 million foreign visitors, even though the government had hoped to receive more than 3 million.
And the first quarter of 2025 was even worse. Between January and March, months that traditionally mark a peak in the year, there was a year-over-year decline of almost 30%, with a collapse in the main source markets — including mainstays such as Canada, Russia, and the United States — according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
This seriously compromises the government’s goal of 2.6 million tourists, seemingly more realistic than that of the previous year, but in practice still visibly far from reality.
For economist Pedro Monreal, this dismal result “would indicate that 2025 could not only be another bad year for tourism in Cuba, but also that it would have gone from being a ‘locomotive’ to becoming the graveyard of substantial state investment.”
2/3 Canadá, principal mercado, cayó 31,8% en marzo 2025 respecto igual mes de 2024, y Rusia, hasta hace poco presentada como nuevo mercado dinámico se contrajo a la mitad. De los 4 principales emisores, EE.UU y la comunidad cubana tuvieron las contracciones menores pic.twitter.com/7BTQr7dIQG
— Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) April 26, 2025
High investment vs. low hotel occupancy
In his publication, Monreal points to one of the most controversial and questioned areas of tourism in Cuba: the high and sustained investment in this sector, which contrasts with its poor results and also with the reduced state funding for other important economic and social sectors such as health, education, agriculture and science.
According to ONEI data, in 2024, 37.4% of investments on the island were allocated to tourism and hospitality-related activities, a figure unmatched by any other investment. This, in the opinion of the aforementioned analyst, reflects a “twisted priority” by the government that “embeds a chronic distortion of national investment focused on tourism.”
While in the first months of this year the energy sector was taking a backseat to tourism — with the extensive program for the construction of solar parks as its flagship — it is still too early to know if this represents a real shift in the state’s investment paradigm, while the construction of new hotels has not ceased on the island.
The construction frenzy for hotel and non-hotel facilities has been spreading since the pre-pandemic tourism boom and has continued even with the significant deterioration of the Cuban economy since then. This is despite the decline in visitor arrivals and hotel occupancy, which fell to just 23% in 2024, even below the already meager 25% of the previous year.
This, logically, also means a drop in income from tourism, one of Cuba’s economic pillars, along with the export of professional services. At the same time, it has prompted constant criticism of the government, both from the public and from economists and other experts. However, the authorities have not given in and have continued to defend their commitment to the sector.
External and internal factors
In their analyses of the situation of the Cuban tourism industry, the authorities have acknowledged the existence of a “very complex scenario” and internal difficulties, but have repeatedly pointed to U.S. sanctions and measures — Trump’s 2019 cruise ship ban was a devastating blow — and other external factors related to the global economic landscape.
Along these lines, Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García Granda pointed out to EFE news agency aspects such as “the rise in fuel prices” and the cancellation of flights to Cuba by a group of airlines.
However, independent experts cited by the Spanish media outlet cite causes such as uncompetitive prices compared to other Caribbean destinations — such as Cancún and the Dominican Republic — the country’s multiple exchange rates, and a lack of infrastructure outside of resorts.
In a recent report on the topic, the agency also points to the severe economic crisis as a factor in the sector’s decline, in line with specialists and even tourists who have visited the island. The crisis, it lists, has hampered hotel supply, hampered transportation due to the lack of fuel, and affected private rental properties due to prolonged daily power outages.
For his part, José Luis Perelló, one of the most respected voices in the study of tourism in Cuba, told EFE that the island “has no tourism development plan,” but rather a “hotel investment plan” focused on “real estate.” He considered that if Cuba wants to return to its peak, it must focus on a “multi-destination spirit” instead of seeking tourists from the outbound market.
The economist believes that, due to the evolution and current circumstances of this industry on the island, the so-called Cuban economic engine is going through a “lost decade” and that the country will not recover its pre-pandemic visitor levels until 2030.
Meanwhile, the authorities — compelled by the country’s financial urgencies — continue to publicly insist on the speedy recovery of the sector and announce plans that have recently failed to materialize.
In 2023 and 2024, Cuba reached one million visitors shortly before or during the International Tourism Fair. This year, at least, that will no longer be the case.
