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The number of Cubans living abroad who traveled to the Island dropped sharply in 2025, according to data published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) of Cuba in its infographic "Retrospective Data": only 228,091 non-resident Cubans arrived in the country during that year, compared to 294,816 in 2024, a difference of 66,725 people.
The figure for 2025 is the lowest since the post-pandemic recovery and consolidates a new downward trend that intensifies in 2026, when Cuba lost almost half of its total travelers between January and April compared to the same period of the previous year, marking a decline of 46.4%.
The historical peak of the series 2015-2025 was recorded in 2019, when 623,972 Cubans from abroad visited the Island.
The years 2017 (517,561) and 2018 (600,306) are the only ones, along with 2019, that exceeded 500,000 visitors from the diaspora.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the most dramatic decline: from 623,972 arrivals in 2019 to 150,388 in 2020, and then to a record low of 52,804 in 2021.
The post-pandemic recovery was partial: 333,191 in 2022 and 358,481 in 2023, never reaching the levels prior to the pandemic.
Since 2023, the trend has reversed again and has only continued to worsen.
ONEI attributes part of the decline to external factors: "In recent years, there has been an intensification of measures against Cuba by the U.S. government; this external factor has directly impacted travel dynamics."
However, the internal structural crisis heavily influences the expatriates' decision not to return, even for a visit.
At least 11 airlines suspended operations to Cuba in 2026, and over 1,700 flights were canceled due to a shortage of aviation fuel, making travel from the diaspora more expensive and challenging.
The more than 15,000 Cubans from the diaspora who stopped traveling to the Island in just the first two months of 2026 —23,002 compared to 38,597 in the same period of 2025— illustrate the rapidity with which this disconnection is deepening.
The migration context worsens the situation: between 2021 and 2025, more than a million people left Cuba, and the resident population on the island dropped to about 8.62 million, which shrinks the base of families that can receive visits from abroad.
Cuba ended 2025 with only 1.8 million international visitors, the lowest figure since 2002, excluding pandemic years, representing a decrease of 17.8% compared to 2024.
The trend for 2026 shows no signs of reversal: by February of that year, Cuba welcomed a total of 363,649 international travelers, just 73.1% of the arrivals recorded in the same period of 2025.
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