Meliá Hotels International announced this Wednesday the immediate cessation of its operations in 15 hotels in Cuba, in response to the ultimatum from the administration of Donald Trump for foreign companies to sever their ties with the military conglomerate GAESA before June 5.
The decision makes the Mallorcan chain the latest major foreign tourism operator to drastically reduce its presence on the island in light of the tightening of U.S. sanctions against companies controlled by the Cuban Armed Forces.
The company notified the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) that its Portuguese subsidiary Ilha Bela is "immediately concluding the provision of management and marketing services, as well as the licensing of its hotel brands" at 15 facilities linked to GAESA.
The affected hotels are:
- Gran Hotel Bristol Old Havana
- Innside Cathedral Havana
- Meliá Buena Vista
- Meliá Cayo Santa María
- Meliá Jardines del Rey
- Meliá Las Dunas
- Meliá Península Varadero
- Paradisus Los Cayos
- Paradisus Princesa Mar
- Paradisus Río de Oro
- Paradisus Varadero
- Caribbean Sun Beach
- Sol Cayo Santa María
- Sun River of Moon and Seas
- Sol Varadero Beach
According to the company, the economic impact will be limited since a large part of these facilities were either closed or operating partially due to the energy crisis and the decline in tourist demand in Cuba.
Meliá's departure is a response to the risk of facing secondary sanctions from Washington for maintaining business relations with entities linked to GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls a significant portion of the Cuban tourism sector.
The withdrawal comes after months of hotel closures due to the tourism crisis
The decision to abandon 15 hotels linked to GAESA comes just a few months after Meliá publicly acknowledged the operational challenges it was facing in Cuba.
In February of this year, the Spanish chain confirmed the temporary closure of several establishments as part of a strategy of "streamlining" its hotel offerings, driven by fuel shortages, transportation issues for workers, and a sustained decline in tourist demand.
At that time, the company managed 35 hotels on the island and stated that it had no plans to leave the Cuban market.
The company presented those closures as an operational measure to adjust the available capacity to the actual levels of occupancy, in a context marked by power outages, supply difficulties, and the reduction of international flights to Cuba.
Meliá currently has 20 active hotels in Cuba, according to its official website
Despite this retreat, the official website of Meliá Cuba continues to market reservations at least 20 hotels located in different provinces of the country.
The prices displayed on the platform this June 3rd are as follows:
| Hotel | Price from |
| Sol Hicacos Varadero | 102 USD |
| Sol Palmeras | 107 USD |
| Meliá Internacional Varadero | 111 USD |
| Meliá Las Antillas | 111 USD |
| Meliá Las Américas | 136 USD |
| Meliá Varadero | 116 USD |
| Meliá Trinidad Península | 108 USD |
| Sevilla Habana Affiliated by Meliá | 68 USD |
| Tryp Habana Libre | 34 USD |
| Meliá Cohiba | 78 USD |
| Meliá Habana | 78 USD |
| Meliá Costa Rey | 109 USD |
| Tryp Cayo Coco | 84 USD |
| Sol Cayo Coco | 84 USD |
| Meliá Cayo Coco | 136 USD |
| Meliá San Carlos | 59 USD |
| Jagua Affiliated by Meliá | 150 USD |
| La Unión Managed by Meliá Hotels International | 59 USD |
| Villas Cienfuegos Affiliated by Meliá | 59 USD |
| Meliá Santiago de Cuba | 41 USD |
The presence of these hotels on the booking platform suggests that the chain still maintains operations or commercial agreements at certain facilities that, at least for the time being, have not been affected by the decision communicated to the CNMV.
A sector severely impacted by the energy crisis and sanctions
The partial withdrawal of Meliá comes amid a deep crisis in the Cuban tourism sector. At the beginning of the year, the chain itself acknowledged that several hotels had been temporarily closed due to a lack of fuel and operational limitations stemming from the national energy crisis. Industry sources indicated at that time that the adjustments particularly impacted Varadero and the northern cays of the country, two of Cuba's main tourist destinations.
The situation later worsened with the reduction of operations from other hotel chains and international airlines. Now, the U.S. sanctions against companies linked to GAESA add a new layer of pressure on a sector that was already recording historically low numbers of visitors and low hotel occupancy rates.
Meliá's departure adds to a string of exits by other companies in just one week. Notably, Iberostar has ceased operations at 12 hotels in Cuba since June 1, although it still maintains a presence with six establishments not linked to GAESA.
The Canadian company Blue Diamond Resorts confirmed its departure on May 31, affecting 62 hotels and over 12,900 rooms. The airline Iberia suspended its flights between Madrid and Havana from June 1 until at least October 24.
GAESA controls a network of about 180 hotels managed in partnership with foreign groups, primarily Spanish and Canadian.
Meliá was the largest foreign operator on the island, managing 33 hotels under long-term contracts with Gaviota, the tourism subsidiary of the military conglomerate.
Cuban tourism was already in free fall before this business exodus. In 2025, only 1.8 million international tourists arrived, the lowest number since 2002 and less than half of the peak of 4.7 million recorded in 2018.
The combination of blackouts, shortages, deterioration of the tourist infrastructure, and increasing pressure from Washington on companies associated with GAESA threatens to further deepen the crisis of one of the country's main sources of foreign currency.
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