This sector “is experiencing the worst numbers in its recorded history” according to economist Pavel Vidal.
14ymedio, Madrid, July 16, 2025 [Delayed Translation] Cuban authorities no longer mention the Coronavirus pandemic, as they have until now, as an explanation for the tourism debacle. Discussing the topic at the Agro-Food Commission in Parliament this Tuesday, Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos Garcia Granda related the decrease in visitors to the “shortage of the sector,” which he said began in 2023 and “worsened” throughout 2024.
“This has been the worst moment since the collapse of the Twin Towers, in 2001, not counting the pandemic period,” asserted the Minister of Tourism, in another meeting on top of those that have been held prior to the fifth regular session of the National Assembly, which begins today, and which paint the bleakest picture for the country.
Among the principal reasons for this shortage given by Garcia Granda are “the centralization of foreign payments and schemes that are unattractive to national producers, especially in the agricultural sector.” That is to say, the difficulty for farmers in accessing dollars, who largely also do not do bank transactions.
There are also “debts in the national currency, difficulties in the conciliation and payments that are not made effectively”
The Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Perez Brito, gave more information, indicating that even though there are “more than 55 links between agriculture and non-state management related to tourism,” there are also “debts in the national currency, difficulties in the conciliation and payments that are not made effectively, which discourages producers.”
The Minister of the Food Industry, Alberto Lopez, went even further: simply, there is an “incapacity” of the production right now to satisfy the demands of tourism. The sector, according to the official press account of his words, “depends on two essential sources: national agriculture and imported products, which both have been diminished in the last few years, which has reduced industrial production.”
Hotel chains like Melia know this well; since last year it has its own importer, Mesol, to guarantee its services. The Spanish chain is one of the few that has been partially saved from the wreck of the sector on the island. In the first trimester of the year, it recorded a 40% occupancy rate, compared to the pitiful national average of 24.1%.
The authorities seem to be conscious of the complaints of the people due to the fact that the regime spends more on luxury hotels than other economic and social sectors, but without explicitly admitting it. The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, who, returning to a phrase that has been repeated in official sources for months, said that tourism “when it is going at a good rate, revives the whole economy” and that “guaranteeing its functioning doesn’t imply neglecting the population, but rather facilitating profits to answer to their needs.”
The Food Industry “does not seek to get rich off of tourism, but rather restock itself to sustain production.”
In the same thread, minister Alberto Lopez underlined that the Food Industry “does not seek to get rich off of tourism, but rather restock itself to sustain production.”
Other problems of the sector mentioned at the meeting were the lack of fuel and the state of the airports. On this last point, they detailed an official report that revealed “deficiencies that affect the quality of a fundamental service for mobility and tourism development.”
The report, which included the inspection of 19 out of the 22 civil airports on the island, and interviews with more than 400 people showed that despite “improvements in preventative maintenance” of international terminals like Havana, in domestic terminals like Granma, Guantanamo and Las Tunas, “the runway deterioration necessitated the partial closure or limitation of operations for small planes.”
Failures of basic services like water supply, poor hygiene in the bathrooms, connectivity issues, scarce cleaning even in VIP lounges, as well as delays in migration and customs processes were just some of the beads in the rosary of problems on display, of a manner rarely seen by those same authorities of the Assembly.
The exposition of this commission coincided with the publication, also this Tuesday, of the monthly report of the economist Pavel Vidal, in which the tourism disaster stands out significantly. “Neither tourists, nor electricity. The Cuban economy continues to be far from offering any sign of recovery. The tourist industry in Cuba in 2025 experienced the worst numbers in its recorded history. This has repercussions in the foreign currency shortage in the country, meanwhile the Cuban government maintains the position of evading any exercise of grand transformation,” summarizes the specialist in his report, which raises alarms, furthermore, that this month could surpass the barrier of 400 pesos to the dollar on the informal market.
“Both phenomena feed back into themselves and create a vicious cycle that limits any kind of economic recuperation”
Vidal, a Colombian resident, concludes that, if you extrapolate the data of the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), about the arrival of visitors until May 2025 and consider the trends of the remaining months, this year “will unlikely surpass 1.8 million tourists,” when the government’s plan was to reach 2.6 million. “The former number would represent around 400,000 fewer tourists than in 2024, a reduction of around 19%,” continues the economist. “The contraction of the Cuban tourism industry in 2025 is the largest recorded since the recording of visitors began (1985), excluding 2020 and 2021, the years of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
This carnage, continues the specialist, is coupled with the no-less-serious issue of the energy deficit. “Both phenomena feed back into themselves and create a vicious cycle that limits any kind of economic recuperation,” says Vidal. “On one hand, the frequent and prolonged blackouts undermine the competitiveness of the tourism sector and greatly affect the international perception of the destination as well as the quality of its services. On the other hand, the sustained drop in revenue from international tourism– one of the principal sources of foreign income for the country– reduces the availability of foreign currency from the State to import fuel and carry out the maintenance that the antiquated thermoelectric plants require.”
Apart from an increase in inflation, Vidal also signaled a loss for private companies. “The MSMEs and the private sector in general are very affected given the high level of direct and indirect dependency on tourism,” and, given “a significant decrease in revenue and profit margins,” in addition to “regulatory prohibitions,” they are given little chance of recovery.
Translated by Logan Cates
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