Official statistics confirm a sustained decline in international visitors, with alarming drops in key markets such as Russia, Canada, and the Cuban community abroad.
Tourism in Cuba is failing to recover and continues to decline. Preliminary data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), updated through the end of May 2025, reveals that the country received a total of 1,171,228 travelers, which represents only 79.4% of the total accumulated during the same period of the previous year.
There are just 303,299 fewer visitors than in the same period in 2024, which translates to a staggering drop of 20.6%, adding to the declining trend that started in 2020.
Even more concerning is the figure for international visitors: 862,343 people traveled to the island from abroad until May, which represents 73.4% compared to the same period in 2024, meaning a loss of 312,219 foreign visitors.
If we take the data from 2022 as a reference, when the average spending per tourist in Cuba reached about 500 dollars, it can be concluded that the decline in the number of tourists results in approximately 156 million dollars in losses in the sector controlled by the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA), which is under the control of the military and elites of the Cuban regime.
Although it may seem contradictory, the decline in the number of international visitors (312,219) is greater than the total loss of travelers (303,299) because, in 2024, foreign tourists represented a much larger proportion of the total.
This implies that, although all segments have declined, the contraction has been particularly severe among foreign travelers, who are the ones that generate the most revenue for the country.
Among the main source countries, the most dramatic drop is recorded in the Russian Federation, with a reduction of 45.6% (from 102,756 in 2024 to just 56,089 in 2025). Canada, traditionally the top market for Cuban tourism, also shows a significant contraction of 28.5%, going from 541,851 to 387,404 visitors.
The Cuban community abroad, another key source of visitors, declined from 129,520 to 100,212 people (a decrease of 22.6%), while travelers from the United States fell to 57,177, 80.9% of the number recorded the previous year.
Other markets are also showing significant declines: Germany (-33%), France (-26.8%), and Italy (-25.7%). Only Argentina and Mexico maintained figures close to those of 2024, with decreases of less than 10%.
The magnitude of the decline becomes even more evident when compared to the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between January and May 2018, Cuba welcomed approximately 2.5 million international visitors, and during the same period in 2019, there were nearly 2.2 million.
In contrast, in 2025 the number decreases to just 862,343 visitors, representing a contraction of more than 60% compared to pre-pandemic levels. This collapse reveals that, far from achieving sustained recovery, Cuban tourism remains far from the standards that existed before the global health crisis.
These numbers confirm that the contraction of tourism is not temporary, but structural. Hotel occupancy in the first quarter was only 24.1%, which means that more than 75% of the installed capacity remained unused, even during the high season.
Overnight stays fell from more than 5 million to 3.6 million, and revenues plummeted by 21.5%, from 44.411 billion to 34.860 billion Cuban pesos, according to data released by the government agency.
The hotel chain Meliá reported a 20.8% drop in revenue per available room and an average occupancy rate of 40.5%, which confirms the weak performance of the Cuban market compared to other Caribbean destinations.
Despite this situation, the Cuban regime continues to invest in the construction of hotels and tourist infrastructure, a strategy that has been strongly criticized by economists and industry specialists.
"International tourism did not occupy even a quarter of hotel capacity in the first quarter. This result is worse than in 2024 and contradicts the official narrative of recovery," warned the economist Pedro Monreal.
The government had set a goal of reaching 2.6 million international visitors by 2025, but after five months, it has only received 33.2% of that figure. Everything indicates that, as happened in 2024, the island will again fall far short of its target.
Problems such as inflation, insecurity, lack of air connectivity, power outages, scarcity of food and medicine, and the general deterioration of public services have diminished Cuba's competitiveness compared to other tourist destinations in the Caribbean.
As setbacks accumulate, doubts grow about the sustainability of an economic model that relies on a tourism sector that is in clear decline. Official figures leave no room for doubt: the crisis in Cuba's tourism sector is deep, and its recovery seems further away than ever.
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