Visitors fall by 33% and 49% respectively, while European arrivals fall to historic lows.
14ymedio, Havana, 18 March 2025 — The number of Canadian tourists visiting Cuba has plummeted by 33% in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2024. A year ago, Cuba received 261,009 travelers from Canada between January and February, compared to 176,611 in 2025, a significant drop of 87,398 visitors, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Tourism published by economist Pedro Monreal this Tuesday.
“The end of the 2024-2025 high tourist season in Cuba looks bleak. Preliminary data indicate a decline in visitors from the four main markets in January-February 2025: Canada, the Cuban community abroad, the US, and Russia,” the expert notes.
According to this data, the Cuban community has dropped from 45,999 to 38,757, a 15.7% decrease; while in the case of Americans, the reduction is smaller, 10.9%, falling from 28,289 to 25,197. The most worrying case, however, is that of Russia. The ally called upon to save the sinking Cuban tourism industry has struck out like no other, posting a 49% drop, from 43,859 in 2024 to 22,306 this year.
The European quartet also continues to decline, with Germany’s decline being the most moderate
The figures released by the ministry do not reflect the total number of tourists who have arrived on the island in the past two months. We will have to wait for the publication of the monthly report from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), but there are some other revealing data.
The decrease in cumulative travelers in January and February 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year leaves some more or less expected declines. One of these is Argentina, which had a positive balance in 2024 but suffered a poor performance that has been consolidated in these first two months, when there were 7.4% fewer visitors.
The European quartet also continues to decline, with Germany experiencing the most moderate decline, at -14.7%, followed by France, at -22%. Spain and Italy are close behind, at -25.21% and -25.82%, respectively, although Spain’s case is the most alarming, due to the cultural and economic ties that exist between the two countries. According to Cuban authorities, the reason lies in the penalty imposed by the US, which requires Europeans who have visited Cuba to apply for visas to travel to its territory, instead of being able to benefit from the ESTA visa waiver program.
Confirmation of this seemingly endless decline comes two days after the close of the Lisbon Tourism Exchange, a trade fair held until last Sunday in the Portuguese capital, where Cuba attempted to sell its benefits as a tourist destination to the country’s public.
Prensa Latina published a note this Monday praising the “successful participation” of the Cuban delegation in Lisbon
The official Prensa Latina news agency published a note this Monday praising the “successful participation” of the Cuban delegation at the event, where an attempt was made to promote direct air connections, dispensing with the Madrid connection—a highly unlikely aspiration, since travelers from Portugal (which has a population of 10.5 million) never appear in national tourism reports, being relegated to the “others” catch-all category.
“The high season ends in March, and we’ll have to wait until October for the start of the 2025-2026 high season. The February data and the announcement of March figures are pending confirmation, but 2025 could be another bad year for tourism in Cuba,” Monreal concludes.
The Cuban government, after years of setbacks, has set a meager tourist target for 2025: just 2.6 million, compared to the 2.7 million achieved in 2024. The initial peak season figures are raising alarm bells, as this target could be far from being achieved.
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