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Punta Cana is now the new Varadero. While tourism in Cuba crumbles, more and more Cuban families find in the Dominican Republic an oasis for reunions, relaxation, and hope.
In June 2025, over 19,500 residents in Cuba traveled to Dominican soil, marking the best sixth month in recent history for that country regarding Cuban visitors. And it's not just about tourism: it's about families torn apart by emigration, who find, amidst beaches and all-inclusive hotels, a middle ground to reunite, even if just for a few days.
The statistics from the Dominican Ministry of Tourism leave no doubt: The Dominican Republic has successfully attracted 43,218 Cuban tourists in just six months, and is on track to surpass the record of 96,682 set in 2022.
Agencies are aware of this and offer packages that simplify the visa process for residents of the island. The formula is clear: sun, amenities, convenience, and, above all, the real possibility of reuniting with family members living in Miami or other parts of the world.
What started as an alternative to the costly and bureaucratic return to Cuba has solidified into a migratory-touristic phenomenon. "I couldn't contain my joy seeing families who hadn't seen each other in 20 years reunite here," says Liliana Suárez from the agency Yes Travel in statements to Dominican media.
Meanwhile, tourism in Cuba is collapsing. From January to June, 319,654 fewer travelers arrived on the island compared to the same period in 2024. The decline is 25%.
The hotels in Varadero and Havana are empty, and the national occupancy barely exceeds 24%. The decline in visitors from Russia and Canada, the main markets, further exacerbates the situation.
International perception is also worsening. A Latina tourist, after visiting Varadero and Havana, shared a heartbreaking testimony on TikTok: “In Havana, people do suffer for food. You see a town that is slowly dying... children with hunger, elderly people without medications, houses on the brink of collapse.”
His account reflects what many Cubans know firsthand: official tourism is an illusion that cannot hide the country's structural crisis.
Dominican Republic as an emotional and logistical alternative
The contrast is clear. While in Cuba authorities insist on "building more hotels" as a formula for growth, in the Dominican Republic tourism is flourishing, even as a means for family reunification.
By 2023, the Deputy Minister of Tourism of that country, Jacqueline Mora, acknowledged that her government was promoting “a strategy to unite families,” stating that “for every 10 Cubans from the island, 60 were coming from Miami.”
The Dominican immigration policy has also facilitated this phenomenon. Since 2022, transit visas are no longer required for Cubans making connections to other destinations, and airlines such as Sky Cana have launched dozens of monthly routes between Havana and Punta Cana, prioritizing weekends when reunions are more frequent.
For many Cubans, the Dominican Republic has become a second home, not by nationality, but out of necessity. There, they can embrace a child who has emigrated, a parent who could not return, a grandmother who meets her grandchildren for the first time.
It is also a less painful alternative than returning to a hostile Cuba, marked by high costs of procedures, blackouts, shortages, and hotels that do not guarantee even water or food. Many emigrants prefer to spend their savings on a trip to the Dominican Republic to see their family under dignified conditions, rather than risking a return to an island where the welcome is costly and reunions can become a bureaucratic nightmare.
The increase in Cuban travel to the Dominican Republic is not a mere tourist trend, but rather an emotional and practical outlet. It is a way to withstand separation, to evade the obstacles imposed by the regime, and to find, if only for a week, a place to be a family once again.
The neighboring island has understood that tourism can also be an act of humanity, while Cuba remains entangled in empty promises, hotels without guests, and speeches that no one believes anymore.
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