A Cuban resident in Spain identified as Yanizorro de la Vega published on Facebook a reflection that resonated with many of his compatriots: the embarrassing experience he endured while staying at the Iberostar Grand Packard Hotel in Old Havana after his return flight was canceled in November.
The airline compensated affected passengers with accommodation, meals, and a buffet breakfast included at one of the most luxurious hotels in Cuba, recognized as the second best in the world in its category according to the 2024 Travellers' Choice awards from TripAdvisor, with prices starting from 270 euros per night. The establishment features 321 luxury rooms, six restaurants, a spa, and a pool.
But what would have been a pleasant surprise for any foreign tourist was painful and uncomfortable for him.
"For the first time in my own country, I was treated like a foreign tourist. It felt awful; I was uncomfortable, and everyone referred to me as 'sir,' a cloying kind of kindness that felt very wrong," he recounted.
De la Vega, who considers himself a neighborhood kid, enjoying sharing rum and playing dominoes with friends on the street, suddenly became someone who visited Cuba as if he were Spanish.
"A lived experience, but for me it was embarrassing, and more than making me feel good, I felt bad, painfully remembering how miserable we are; I simply did not belong there," she concluded.
The situation reflects a historical contradiction of the Cuban tourism model. Although the government claims that Cubans have free access to hotels, the daily reality of the Island makes many citizens feel out of place in spaces designed for foreign visitors.
Discrimination against Cubans in the tourism sector is common.
Frequently, social media posts appear that denounce the discrimination suffered by Cubans in their own country, where degrading policies humiliate national citizens in front of foreign nationals.
In February 2023, a young man reported the discrimination he faced at the Pernik hotel in Holguín when he tried to enter to sit at a table near a power outlet to work on his laptop.
In another incident, the photographer and YouTuber Yander Serra reported that he was denied entry to the Capri hotel in Havana, and was told that if he wanted to consume, he would have to do so after the foreign customers.
In another unfortunate incident, a man walking down a street in El Vedado, Havana, was removed from the sidewalk in front of the Grand Aston hotel, owned by the military consortium GAESA.
This type of experience refers to the official tourist apartheid that prohibited Cubans from accessing hotels and beaches reserved for foreigners, a policy that profoundly marked the identity and collective memory of several generations.
The testimony of Yanizorro arrives at a time when tourism in Cuba is experiencing a deep crisis. So far in 2026, the Island has recorded 112,642 fewer visitors than in the same period of the previous year, a decline that further worsens the country's precarious economic situation.
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