Cuba Tourism Hits Bottom With 73 Percent of Hotels Closed as Havana Says It Is Opening Up

CUBA · TOURISM

Cuba tourism has hit bottom, with 73 percent of hotels closed and seven international chains gone. In the very same week, Havana passed private-sector reforms and its deputy trade minister told USA Today that Cuba is opening up.

The numbers from the government’s own mouth

This is not an opposition estimate. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz told the National Assembly on 29 July that 73 percent of hotel facilities remain closed.

He also confirmed that seven international chains had ceased operating on the island. Those chains ran 46 percent of the rooms managed under foreign brands.

Around 25,000 hotel workers are now in disponibilidad, the Cuban term for being sent home without work. State news agency Prensa Latina returned to the crisis in two articles on 27 and 28 August.

The agency blames United States sanctions and pressure on foreign companies. The figures themselves come from the government and its statistics office, the ONEI.

Who left, and what they left behind

The biggest blow to Cuba tourism was Meliá, which once managed 34 Cuban hotels. It told Spain’s stock market regulator on 21 July that it would stop all services on the island.

The exit took effect on 24 July 2026. Iberostar closed 12 of its 18 hotels on 1 June and then abandoned the remaining six.

Barceló rescinded its contracts for two hotels in Varadero. The departures gutted the core of Cuba tourism in a single summer.

News agency EFE also lists Canada’s Blue Diamond, Indonesia’s Archipelago International and Turkey’s ATG among the departures. Minor Hotels had already pulled its two NH hotels out of Havana in February.

The money tells its own story. Spanish chains had between €80 and €100 million (US$93 to 116 million) trapped in the Cuban banking system, funds they could not repatriate.

Head offices had already written those sums off. Total Spanish investment in Cuba from 1993 to 2024 came to €465 million (US$539 million).

Most of that money went into accommodation, according to the Spanish trade agency ICEX. Much of it now sits in buildings that do not open.

A visitor count that has collapsed

Cuba received 387,591 international visitors between January and June 2026. The same period of 2025 brought 985,606, so the fall is 60.7 percent in one year.

Canada, historically the biggest source market, fell hardest. It went from 428,118 visitors in the first half of 2025 to 126,937 this year, a drop of 70.3 percent.

In February, Air Canada, WestJet and Air Transat suspended flights because Cuban airports lacked aviation fuel. In March, just 511 visitors arrived from Canada, against almost 99,000 a year earlier.

Hotel occupancy in the first quarter ran at 12.9 percent. A year earlier it was 23.7 percent, itself a weak figure.

The government is now seeking new operators for the empty infrastructure. It highlights the Italian chain Domina, which runs one Varadero hotel and projects two more in Havana.

The electricity system behind the empty rooms

Cuba tourism is collapsing on top of a failing power grid. On 2 August the entire national electricity system disconnected, leaving the island dark.

Through August, generation deficits ran between roughly 1,700 and 2,400 megawatts a day against demand of around 3,300. Provinces such as Holguín reported more than 18 hours without power in a single day.

Hundreds of millions of euros sit sunk into hotels that do not operate. A hotel without electricity or guests is a building, not a business.

The same week, Havana says it is opening up

Against this backdrop, Cuba enacted private-sector reforms this week. Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Carlos Luis Jorge Méndez gave USA Today an exclusive interview in Havana.

“This reinforces the idea that Cuba is opening up,” Méndez said. “This is a real process; this is for real. This isn’t a ploy.”

Three measures are expected to become law within days. Private Cuban companies will import and export directly without a state agency.

Foreign investors will no longer hire workers through the state. Foreigners will also gain broader rights to develop real estate on the island.

The changes belong to a package of 176 economic reforms approved in June. Méndez said all of them should be law by the end of the year.

John Kavulich of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council called the trajectory good. But he warned the constitution would need amending to make the changes permanent.

Reforms from the Obama-era thaw were later rolled back. That history is why outside analysts stay cautious.

The opening comes under maximum American pressure. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new round of sanctions on 20 August, and direct talks between the two countries are stalled.

What to watch from here

First, watch whether the three trade and investment measures actually become law this week. An announcement is not a statute.

Second, watch the winter season. Canada decides whether Cuba tourism survives, and the Canadian carriers have not restored their February schedules.

Third, watch the grid. Until the blackouts end, every hotel reopening rests on a diesel generator and a prayer.

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