Cuba tourism struggles as blackouts and shortages deter guests

By David Sherwood

HAVANA (Reuters) – As blackouts, meals, gasoline and labor shortages in Cuba develop extra acute by the day, a visit to the Caribbean island has develop into a tough promote.

Cuban authorities statistics inform the story: Earlier this week, Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Garcia mentioned Cuba noticed 2.2 million worldwide guests this yr, effectively wanting its unique objective of three.2 million and fewer than half of pre-pandemic ranges.

This yr’s decline stalled a fledgling restoration following the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government mentioned, a adverse development that Cuban tourism knowledgeable Paolo Spadoni says could also be onerous to reverse.

“Sadly, Cuba is changing into every single day extra distinctive for all of the flawed causes, and thus extra unattractive as a vacationer vacation spot,” mentioned Spadoni, an economist at Augusta College in Georgia. “Prospects for 2025 are usually not encouraging.”

Cuba has lengthy appealed to vacationers attracted by the mystique of a Communist-run island which, not less than to guests, seems frozen in time due to a plethora of Fifties autos and cities principally freed from the sort of industrial growth seen elsewhere within the Caribbean.

Taxi driver David Sarzo, who drives a classic U.S. sedan in Havana, mentioned he and his colleagues couldn’t see “any mild on the finish of the tunnel due to the disaster … which is main tourism brokers to steer purchasers away from Cuba.”

The ocean-front capital Havana is framed by the commanding El Morro citadel and within the countryside, oxen nonetheless plow fields the place tobacco is grown then rolled by hand.

However three nationwide blackouts within the final months of 2024 touched nearly each aspect of island life, together with tourism. Whereas some giant inns have mills, decrease funds lodging and rental properties typically don’t, forcing company within the tropical local weather to go with out air con.

Following the latest collapse of the island’s electrical grid, the tourism ministry sought to reassure potential guests.

“We’re ready to face the present challenges and be sure that tourism actions are developed usually,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement on social media.

However the dangerous information has gotten out.

Canada – which sends extra vacationers to Cuba than another nation – is now telling its residents to “train a excessive diploma of warning in Cuba as a result of shortages of fundamental requirements together with meals, medication and gasoline.”

Germany, too, lately issued an identical warning, urging vacationers to “fastidiously contemplate the need” of a visit to the island.

A number of companies have adopted swimsuit.

Canadian journey company Sunwing advised commerce journal PAXNews it had eliminated 26 inns from its record of locations in Cuba, citing “volatility … that will shake shopper confidence.”

Germany’s Condor Airline, which has flown to Cuba for many years, mentioned in an announcement earlier this month it will halt its flights to the island starting in Might, preferring “locations with extra demand.”

“I traveled right here in December final yr, and there have been extra vacationers, however this yr lots much less,” mentioned Canadian vacationer Kyle Cong, who attributed the decline to information about latest nationwide blackouts.

“Individuals get involved,” he mentioned.