The locomotive goes to «forced march»

The so -called Cuban economy locomotive does not take speed. According to official figures of January of this year, he experienced a contraction of more than 15% compared to January 2024. Experts point out that the trend is not encouraging.

In 2024, 2.2 million visitors arrived in Cuba, which represented, according to official figures, 71% of the expected, that is, an interannual contraction in the environment of 10%.

José Luis Perelló, one of the tourism scholars within Cuba, said in an interview with the EFE news agency that has lost a decade, “2029 or 2030 to reach the figures of 2019”.

World Bank Statistics show that 2018 was the year in which more foreign tourists arrived in Cuba (4 million 712 thousand), while 2019 experienced an year -on -year contraction of 9.3% (4 million 276 thousand), being even below the arrival of 2017 (4 million 654 thousand). Then Covid 19 arrived, and although its regional competitors recovered, even Dominican Republic received 11 million vacationers last year, the largest of the Antilles is still behind.

Paolo Spadoni, associate professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Augusta, in an analysis of the results of 2024, told the Reuters agency that the sector can be difficult to straighten. «Unfortunately, Cuba is becoming more unique for wrong reasons and, therefore, less attractive as a tourist destination.»

This year, the tourism of the island is in free fall. According to the National Statistics and Information OfficeJanuary experienced an interannual contraction of more than 15% in the number of international visitors.

«Russian tourism, which until recently was the third issuer, was significantly deflated in January 2025 with a number of visitors that, approximately, was half of the registered in January 2024,» said Cuban economist Pedro Monreal in a thread in X.

Monreal analyzed the results and concluded that it is the third worst result in the sector since 2003 for the month of January, being only surpassed by the two years of pandemic.

He Annual Financial Report From the hotel chain Mallorcan Meliá reveals that Cuba is by far his destination with lower hotel occupancy (15% less than Asia). The text points out that the perspectives of the start of 2025 «have a similar scenario at the end of 2024, less stays and lower average rates», highlighting that the evolution of the year will depend on the solution of the problem of supply and energy, as well as «a recovery of lost air capacity, since there have been cancellations of routes and frequencies.»

«Foreign hotel chains continue to assume hotels in Cuba, the occupation is minimal,» Perelló said to Efe. The expertise remarked that on the island what exists is not a development plan of the sector, but of hotel investment. «It belongs to the real estate sector, they are not investments of tourist interest,» he said.

But the Cuban regime continues to bet on tourism. Recently, the so-called K23 Tower was inaugurated, operated by the Spanish group Iveroestar, which was popularly baptized as the López-Calleja tower, by the late head of the Gaesa military conglomerate, and promoter of the project, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja.

The 42 plants hotel contrasts with a ruins Havana, while residents of the area wonder why these funds were not invested in housing construction or repair.

Those who travel to the island of communist government, even if they do it as tourists, suffer from the crisis that the Cuban people live: blackouts, streets turned into garbage dumps and food deficit.

“Who will pay thousands of dollars for a passage by plane, and then for the stay, to go see hell? That tourist segment, that modality, does not exist in the world, ”said Emilio Morales, president of Havana Consulting Group.