The authorities hide the net income of that sector because it is insignificant.
14ymedio, Madrid, May 29, 2025 — The deployment of Randy Alonso to defend the spoiled child of the regime, tourism in its lowest hours, is worthy. For the second day in a row, State TV’s Mesa Redonda [Round Table] show spoke the once-lucrative line to underline the same idea as on Tuesday: the great “contribution to the economy of the country and its social responsibility.”
This time the protagonist was Cubasol, the group of non-hotel services and State real estate that includes transport companies (Transtur), development of complexes (Cubagolf), shows (Turare), marina and nautical (Marlin), commercial (Caracol) and services (Palmarés). In the 59 minutes of the program, not a single word of interest was said, apart from knowing what each of these divisions is devoted to and some mention of projects of little concrete responsibility, being the most sleep-inducing for any spectator who could – with permission of the blackout – watch television.
The objective, more than anything else, is to try to sell an “opinion matrix” based on fiction and to hide the reality by anecdotes and fragmented notes,” pointed out the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who agrees with what was stated by 14ymedio. The expert dedicated a thread to the previous day’s program, visibly annoyed, in which he accused the authorities of not taking responsibility for the “disaster” and sending “their emissaries [who] avoided the official data.”
“The situation is very bad when it has been lower ranking officials who have hurriedly come out to squirm and cover up the disaster of tourism in Cuba”
“The situation is very bad when it has been lower ranking officials who have hurriedly come out to squirm and cover up the disaster of tourism in Cuba by replacing the old and discredited image of ’locomotive’ for that of ’cash register’,” he began. In his series of eleven messages, the expert recalled the main figures of tourism, falling since 2019 and in decline since 2021. “When they tell us on television that tourism generates ’a more direct flow’ of foreign exchange, they hide the fact that it is gross income and that netincome is not published (the most relevant data), after discounting the expenditure in foreign currency to operate and invest in tourism,” he says.
Indeed, the Cuban government has always kept secret, as this newspaper has pointed out on many occasions, the real figures for tourism, since the mere expenses generated by the sector are enormous, among other reasons because of the extreme need to import everything, from food to building materials and everything else imaginable as the country’s industry and manufacturing is in a state of collapse. Covering all these expenses could use up the returns of the sector, although it is impossible to know.
Thus, as Monreal points out, in order for Tourism to still have money to contribute to sectors like Health, Education and others, it would have to obtain an exorbitant income, “something unlikely with the low level of gross income (the only published data ).” The expert also provides information on how international economists measure tourism returns (Ghosh and Leontief multipliers, used in Input-Output models), which officialism has not given, replacing them with “generic mentions” or “anecdotes.”
“It could indicate intent to deceive or incompetence (or both)”
“It could indicate intent to deceive or incompetence (or both),” concludes the expert, who believes that if officials know the multiplier data and do not disclose it, perhaps it is because it is not so positive. “If the multipliers are not calculated and used, the incompetence would be enormous,” he says.
As the population, however enthusiastic it may be, knows what it sees, the reactions of the readers of Cubadebate to the written version of the Round Table on Tuesday seem conclusive: almost no one has been convinced, and some laypeople had already reached the conclusions set out by Monreal. “I would have liked, as a citizen committed to my country, for the Round Table to explain why so many hotels were built while there was a clear trend towards a decrease in international visitors. What is the real income of tourism? What are the profits obtained?” says one reader.
“It would be more convincing to say: ’for such year there was X entry in foreign exchange thanks to tourism’. And then, explain precisely how the percentages were distributed,” adds another.
The conversation generated in the program that Randy Alonso himself directs is active
Their doubts are shared by many others who consider them, at least, timely. “When the net profit is analyzed, it must exceed by far, in my opinion, the political cost of the Cuban reality and the income that would be obtained if the resources were allocated to other sectors,” said another. The conversation generated in the program that Randy Alonso himself directs is active, and readers have also contributed ideas about what is failing to stop travelers from coming to Cuba: the blackouts, the feeling of insecurity at night due to the lack of light, the infamous accumulation of garbage and the shortages in restaurants.
“No one doubts for a second that tourism is one of our fundamental sources of MLC [freely convertible currency], or that it ensures the productive linkage with other branches of the national economy and is a strong source of employment. However, what many question is why, knowing that our financial resources are not very broad, we continue to insist on large hotel investments, when the employment rate is falling and it is becoming more difficult to maintain the insurance and maintenance of hotels that already exist,” says another commentator.
It is the line that many opinions point out, more or less elaborated: that what was said at the Round Table may be valid for tourism in many countries, but on the island, now, it is not. As another user sums up: “The locomotive had a flat tire.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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