Cubans on social media reacted to a video that shows the interior of the iconic bar-restaurant Floridita in Havana, completely empty of customers, with only two uniformed employees behind the bar and the musicians playing for the deserted tables.
The image, captured in just 13 seconds, has become a symbol of the tourism collapse that Cuba is experiencing: "They are singing to the flies," summarized a user.
"A place that was always filled with people," "For God's sake, Cuba is a sea of shit and misery, a radical change is urgently needed," others commented.
Similarly, a forum member made another comparison: "The Titanic sinking and the musicians there."
The clip was published by Arnold Caraballo under the title "Look at how the Floridita is. Run, gentlemen."
El Floridita, the birthplace of the daiquiri in Cuba was founded in 1817 as "La Piña de Plata" at the corner of Obispo and Monserrate in Old Havana. Its international fame is largely due to Ernest Hemingway, who began frequenting it in 1932 and immortalized it with the phrase "My mojito in the Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita."
At its peak, the establishment welcomed 250,000 visitors annually, with 80% of the American tourists in Havana passing through its doors. In 2022, it was ranked among the 50 best bars in North America and the Caribbean.
The image of the empty establishment is not an isolated anecdote, but rather the most symbolic reflection of the collapse of Cuban tourism. Cuba ended 2025 with just 1.8 million international visitors, a 17.8% decrease compared to 2024 and the worst record since 2002 —excluding the pandemic— far from the 4.7 million tourists it welcomed in 2018. The cumulative contraction over seven years exceeds 61%.
The beginning of 2026 shows no signs of recovery. In January, only 184,833 tourists arrived, which is a 9% decrease compared to the same month last year and the worst January in 13 years. Arrivals from the United States have nearly halved: from 14,027 in January 2025 to just 6,997 in January 2026.
The causes are structural: a severe energy crisis, disruption of Venezuelan crude oil supply, more than 1,700 flights canceled and an international notice of Jet A1 fuel shortage at Cuban airports extended until April 2026. Canada had to repatriate 27,900 stranded tourists, and Russia evacuated another 4,300. The hotel occupancy across the island hovered around 18.9% during 2025.
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