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The Ministry of Tourism of Cuba posted on its official Facebook account for Canada a guide to alternative routes for Canadian tourists to travel to the island during the summer of 2026, making stops in third countries due to the lack of direct flights from Canada.
The publication, aimed at the main source market for tourists to the island, lists six connection options: via Miami with American Airlines (to Havana, Varadero, Santa Clara, Camagüey, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba) and with Delta Air Lines (to Havana); via Panama City with Copa Airlines; via Mexico City with Aeroméxico; via Cancun with Viva Aerobus (to Havana and Camagüey); and via Nassau with Bahamasair (to Havana).
The regime requires Canadians using these routes to meet two additional requirements: obtain a mandatory e-Visa, available on the website evisacuba.cu or through the travel operator Hola Sun Holidays, and complete the D'Viajeros advance travel information form to obtain the required QR code for entry into the country.
The measure is a desperate response to the air connectivity crisis that erupted on February 9, 2026, when Cuba issued an aviation notice warning that Jet A-1 fuel would not be available at nine international airports, including Havana, Varadero, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba.
In response to this situation, Canadian airlines suspended their flights to Cuba en masse: Air Canada postponed its resumption until November 1, 2026; WestJet canceled most of its operations until October; Air Transat extended its suspension until the end of October; and Sunwing halted its flights with no return date.
In total, eleven airlines have suspended their routes to Cuba so far in 2026, while only eight continue operations to the island.
The impact on Canadian tourism has been catastrophic. In March 2026, only 511 Canadians arrived in Cuba, compared to 98,663 in the same month of 2025, a decrease of 99.48%.
Canada has historically been the largest source market for tourists to Cuba, with over 750,000 visitors in 2025 and accounting for more than 40% of the total international tourists the island receives.
The collapse is not limited to the Canadian market. Russian tourism also plummeted, dropping from 7,314 visitors in February to just 249 in March 2026, after the airlines Rossiya and Nordwind suspended their flights on February 11.
The Cuban tourism sector as a whole fell to 52% of the level of the previous year in the first quarter of 2026, with only 298,057 total international visitors, and hotel occupancy plummeted to 18.9% in the first two months of the year.
This is not the first time the regime has tried to alleviate the situation in this way: the state tourism group Gaviota had already begun promoting travel from Canada to Cuba through third countries as of February 17, 2026, just days after the fuel crisis erupted.
This week's MINTUR publication formalizes that strategy with specific routes and detailed visa requirements, in an attempt to restore a tourist flow that has nearly completely evaporated.
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