The Cuban critic, theater researcher, editor, and professor Vivian Martínez Tabares proposed this Saturday that the closed hotels in Cuba be converted into hospitals and apartment buildings for professionals and workers, in a publication that has resonated on social media for its starkness and practicality.
"With so many hotels closed, it would be a great idea if, in a revolutionary spirit, one of them could be transformed into a hospital and another into an apartment building for professionals and skilled workers. It could be this one or any other," wrote Martínez on his Facebook profile alongside a photograph of the Iberostar Selection La Habana, located in the skyscraper on 23rd Avenue, known as Torre K.
The proposal arises at a time when Cuban tourism has been in free fall for four years: in the first quarter of 2026, Cuba received only 328,608 international tourists, a 55.8% decrease compared to the same period in 2025.
Hotel occupancy does not exceed 10% in 2026, a level at which no hotel generates profits, according to economist Elías Amor.
Gaviota, the tourism arm of the military conglomerate GAESA, closed 20 hotels in Cayo Santa María, leaving more than 7,000 workers unemployed. At least 11 airlines have suspended flights to Cuba this year, including Air Canada, Air France, and Turkish Airlines.
"GAESA has been observing for five years how revenues in the tourism sector are declining and how those new, shining hotels built with the money of Cubans are completely empty," analyzed the economist Amor.
Martínez's proposal links that idle infrastructure to two structural crises that the regime has been unable to resolve.
On one hand, the housing deficit exceeds 929,000 homes in 2026, 35% of the housing stock is in fair or poor condition, and in 2025 the government barely completed 2,382 units out of the 10,795 planned.
On the other hand, in February, the Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal Miranda stated before Parliament that the sector is "on the brink of collapse," with more than 96,000 surgeries postponed, only 30% of the basic medication supply available, and blackouts lasting up to 20 hours in hospitals.
There have also been reports of a partial ceiling collapse at the Calixto García Hospital and wastewater pooling under patient beds at the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Surgical Hospital.
In that context, of 94.1 million dollars to assist around two million Cubans in 63 municipalities across eight provinces.
The idea of converting vacant hotels, modern buildings equipped with water and electricity facilities, and already built rooms into social resources emerges as a solution that would avoid the need to build from scratch in a country lacking materials and foreign currency. Additionally, Meliá was operating with 50% of its capacity paralyzed in the first quarter of the year.
Furthermore, cement production in Cuba operates at 10% of its installed capacity, making any large-scale construction plan practically impossible, while vacant hotels stand as a symbol of the regime's failed priorities.
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