Beach chairs are emptying out fast in Cuba, and politics in Washington is a big reason why. President Trump's latest squeeze on the island—targeting both tourism and foreign oil shipments—has collided with an already weak post-pandemic economy to produce fuel shortages, blackouts, and abruptly canceled vacations, reports the New York Times. Indeed, with the Trump administration threatening tariffs on any country that supplies fuel to the country, Cuba's tourism industry "is likely to suffer a year comparable only to the pandemic," the outlet notes.
Airlines from Canada and Russia have pulled or rerouted flights as the government warns it's short on jet fuel, and some carriers even sent in empty planes just to get stranded tourists out. Canadians, who long made up about 40% of foreign visitors, are increasingly staying away as travel advisories rise and reports of power cuts, trash buildup, and medicine shortages grow.
The Times notes that visitor numbers have cratered from 4.7 million in 2018 to 1.8 million last year, even as Cuba poured billions into new hotels now sitting largely unused, with occupancy at around 20%. "They didn't invest in the other sectors that support tourism, such as the energy grid itself," says Emilio Morales, who studies Cuba's tourism industry. The industry is now close to breaking point, the CBC reports. As "tourism provides liquidity for necessary imports and investments, taking care of the most pressing problems within Cuba," the lack of tourism dollars will "have a huge impact," Paolo Spadoni, a Cuba expert at Augusta University, tells the outlet.
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