Tourism has long been a cornerstone of the Cuban economy. International visitors have for decades flocked in large numbers to the pristine beaches of Varadero, the history-filled streets of Havana and the lush valleys of Viñales.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the regimes of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European communist allies began to collapse and Cuba lost nearly three quarters of its international trade, the Cuban government began to significantly develop its tourism industry to address the economic crisis it faced after the loss of its major trading partners.
Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader from 1959 to 2008, declared in 1994 that “only tourism can save Cuba”. Between 1990 and 1999 the Cuban government invested more than $3.5 billion USD in the industry. Airports, causeways connecting the keys (the small, picturesque islands that surround the main island of Cuba) and hotels were developed.
The gamble paid off; the Cuban tourist industry boomed and Fidel Castro’s Cuban Communist Party endured the crisis of the 1990s and remains in power today. Between 1990 and 2005, annual international visitors to Cuba increased from 340,329 to 2,319,334 and the revenue generated by tourism increased from some $243 million USD to some $2.58 billion USD.
By 2017, the number of tourists visiting Cuba had risen to around 4.2 million as the growth of the industry continued unabated. This boom in the late 2010s was helped by the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba that occurred during the second administration (2013-2017) of U.S. President Barack Obama.
German national Alissa Scheer, an entrepreneur, tour guide and cultural expert on Cuba who is based in Havana, remembers this time fondly. She told Latin America Reports that around the time of “President Obama’s visit [to Cuba] and Chanel’s famous fashion show in Havana … the country was on everyone’s lips … [and] travelers were eager to come [to Cuba] ‘before it becomes Americanized’”.
The American cruise ship Adonia sets sail from the U.S. to Cuba in May 2016 after the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It was the first cruise ship to make the journey in more than 50 years.
Image Source: Fox News via X
It seemed that Americanization did indeed loom. Between 2014 and 2017 the number of U.S. visitors to Cuba increased from just over 91,000 to 619,500.
However, the Cuban tourism industry has since suffered significant setbacks. The election of Donald Trump in the U.S. in 2016 meant an eventual reintroduction of travel restrictions for U.S. citizens visiting the country.
In June 2019, Trump banned U.S.-based cruises from going to Cuba. By 2019, the repercussions of these restrictions became tangible as the number of international visitors to Cuba fell from approximately 4.7 million in 2018 to approximately 4.3 million in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic further decimated the industry; the number of international visitors to Cuba fell to 356,470 in 2021 and the numbers of visitors have not yet matched pre-pandemic levels. In 2024, Cuba welcomed a mere 2.2 million tourists, a far cry from the halcyon days of the Obama era.
This year has, thus far, also proven disappointing for Cuban tourism. In the first half of 2025 just under 1 million foreign tourists visited the island nation. This figure represents a 25% drop compared to the same period in 2024.
It appears that the number of annual visitors in 2025 will fall short of the government’s target of attracting 2.6 million tourists this year. Scheer said that the reality on the ground in Cuba corroborates these figures. She emphasised that the “tourism industry is definitely in decline … and has been going downhill steeply since the pandemic.”
The drop is partially attributable to decreasing flight connections between Cuba and the outside world. This year, various U.S. airlines decreased their services between the two countries. Southwest Airlines, the fourth-largest airline in North America, plans to operate only one daily flight from Tampa to Havana starting in September. The company had previously offered twice daily flights between the two cities.
American Airlines recently requested to temporarily suspend its route between Miami and Santiago de Cuba. United Airlines also announced an upcoming complete suspension of its flights between Havana and Houston.
The various American airlines cite an increase in sanctions from the Trump administration on Cuba, a decline in demand and bureaucratic obstacles as reasons for the reduction in their services to the Caribbean nation.
Tourists from outside North America have also been visiting in ever-decreasing numbers. Between January and May 2025, 56,089 Russians visited Cuba, a decrease of 45.6% compared to the same period in 2024.
Russian tourists, who have visited Cuba in increasingly large numbers in recent years, are reportedly being deterred from visiting in 2025 because of poor customer service, poor facilities, poor maintenance and recurring shortages of food, electricity and water.
According to Scheer, the initial enthusiasm about the Russian market from the perspective of the Cuban tourism industry has indeed waned: “The boom seems to be over … the number of Russian visitors this year is only about half of what it was last year.”
Cuba’s socioeconomic difficulties seem to be the fundamental, systemic root of the dramatic, consistent decline in tourism on the island. Ricardo Torres Pérez, a Cuban economist and research fellow at American University in Washington D.C., attributes this year’s drop in tourism from Canada – the top country of origin for tourists to Cuba in 2023 and 2024 – to the visibility of Cuba’s current socioeconomic woes.
“The crisis has affected the quality of services, the state of infrastructure and has led to frequent blackouts … solid waste [is] accumulating in the streets … [and] crime is on the rise,” he told the CBC.
Cuban streets during the nationwide power outage of October 2024.
Image Source: América Rangel via X
Scheer agrees, though suggested that the problems with the Cuban tourist industry are more deeply embedded. “Since the pandemic, the lack of investment has become evident everywhere – in the roads, the water system, the power grid. Much of the infrastructure dates back to the 1960s, and instead of being properly modernized, it has only been patched up,” she said. “The result is collapsing power networks, constant blackouts, and streets full of potholes that are never repaired … all of these factors … [make] it very difficult for tourism to recover [post-pandemic].”
The restrictive regulations imposed on the industry by the Cuban government, according to Scheer, don’t help either. She asserted that Cuban regulations are a significant obstacle “for larger companies … such as the destination management agency where I worked for years … when I was working at the DMC, if we wanted to contract a bus for a group, we were only allowed to choose state-run companies. There was no freedom to select the best option on the market.”
Scheer said that the regulations also greatly hinder the operation of Cuban hotels. “When it comes to [hotels] hiring staff, for instance, the candidates often need to be pre-approved by the government,” she said. “Hotels cannot freely select the people they want … government regulations in Cuba … prevent the kind of entrepreneurial freedom that the tourism sector desperately needs.”
This notwithstanding, the Cuban government is attempting to combat the increasing multinational disinterest in vacationing on its shores. Havana hosted the FITCUBA 2025 International Tourism Fair to attract foreign visitors, showcase the island nation’s international ties and launch new initiatives for development of the tourist industry. China was the guest country of honour, a reflection of the Cuban government’s desire to expand into new markets by increasing China-Cuba travel.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Chinese Ambassador to Cuba Hua Xin visit the Chinese Pavilion at the International Tourism Fair in Havana.
Image Source: Hua Xin via X
The Cuban government, after the fair, announced that it intended to renovate the Jagua Hotel in Cienfuegos, inaugurate the Sol Hicacos Varadero Hotel and upgrade the Deauville Hotel in Havana amongst other planned projects.
Furthermore, a new hotel in Havana named the Iberostar Selection Havana opened its doors earlier this year. The luxury 5 star hotel, with 42 floors, 594 rooms and views of the city’s seafront, or Malecón, is the tallest hotel in the country and seeks to attract luxury tourists to the Cuban capital.
Attempts to revive the Cuban tourism sector are unlikely to stop, given that 8.2% of the Cuban government’s investment budget for 2025 is allocated to the tourist sector, compared to just 3.2% allocated to health, education and agriculture. However, it remains to be seen if this significant investment will help reinvigorate Cuba’s ailing tourist industry in the latter half of the year.
Featured Image: Havana’s grandiose Hotel Nacional
Image Credit: Henryk Kotowski via Wikimedia Commons
License: Creative Commons Licenses
