A report by the special correspondent of the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire, Chiara Vitali, published on Sunday, November 8, from Varadero and Havana, provides a devastating image of Cuban tourism: nearly empty hotels, deserted beaches, and workers barely surviving by selling coconuts because their jobs have vanished.
Juan Ivanez, an employee of a hotel in Varadero, showed the journalist the guest list: 80 people during a time when the establishment used to welcome 400. The lobby had three people. The pool, none. "Seventy of the guests are Cubans. Foreign tourists have disappeared," Ivanez said, and added the phrase that, according to Avvenire, "every Cuban repeats": "We have never experienced such a difficult period."
A few meters away, on the nearly deserted shore, Ivan —a former carpenter for several hotels— was trying to sell two coconuts. "I worked as a carpenter for various hotels, but now some are closed and with the lack of electricity, it's hard for me to work," he explained to the Italian newspaper. His family lives in Santiago de Cuba, and he hasn't been able to visit them all year: "There is no fuel for transportation."
The report described by Avvenire is based on Cuban state data that the newspaper itself cites: 73% of hotels closed in the last year, and the arrival of international tourists fell by at least 58% in the first half of 2026. Of the nearly 300,000 people who normally work in the sector, 30,000 lost their jobs according to those same official sources.
The figures from the European report align with what the regime itself ultimately admitted. The Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, acknowledged on Friday in the state television program Mesa Redonda that the sector has decreased from about 103,000 workers at the end of 2025 to approximately 83,000 currently: nearly 22,000 jobs affected or "temporarily" reassigned in hospitals and industries. García Granda attributed the decline to a "progressive deterioration" that began with the pandemic, and not just to more recent difficulties.
The Cuban economist Ricardo Torres had warned in June that, although many workers formally maintain their contracts, the real loss is immediate: the crisis "directly impacts the income sources of many workers," as most rely on tips and informal earnings linked to foreign visitors.
The debacle in the sector —largely controlled by the military conglomerate GAESA through its subsidiary Gaviota— accelerated after U.S. sanctions forced the exit of Iberostar, Meliá, and Barceló between June and July. Varadero, which once was a reference point for Caribbean tourism, has become a destination that European operators are redirecting towards Isla Margarita or the Dominican Republic.
The collapse extends to Havana. In the deserted Plaza Vieja, Ilenio, an employee of a bar, summarized the situation with a single sentence: "We don't have electricity even to produce our own beer."
Avvenire also highlights the impact of mass emigration on the urban landscape: thousands of houses sold at ridiculously low prices by those who left the island have come under the management of the Office of the Historian. Its director, Perla Rosales Aguirreurreta, explained to the newspaper that they have initiated a process to receive proposals from foreign investors for those properties, although “none have been evaluated so far” and there are “very strict rules.”
The package of 176 economic reforms approved by the National Assembly on June 18—characterized by regime affiliates as "the most significant change since 1959"—includes measures for tourism, such as private management of hotels and the opening up to foreign capital without mandatory state mediation. However, Avvenire itself warns that the reforms "are currently merely words on a paper" and that the final decision regarding each new activity still rests with the central government.
Before the pandemic, the Cuban tourism sector employed between 140,000 and 150,000 people. In 2018, it welcomed nearly 4.7 million visitors. By the end of October 2026, Cuba had only fulfilled 28.8% of its annual tourism plan.
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