Madrid/In the years of Bonanza, the official press used to celebrate the arrival of the first million tourists in Varadero as the first three months of the high season. Today, the “most beautiful beach in the world” is A desertand the data of the first semester of 2025 reveal that only 981,856 visitors were recorded throughout the country, 25% less than those who arrived in the same period last year (1,309,655).
Last month there was a total of 119,513 international visitors, a smaller number than In May and similar – illiginally lower, even – to the one registered in June 2022, when world tourism was still convalescent of the measures against the pandemic of the Coronavirus.
By nationalities, they all fall except Colombia, which in any case does not imply one of the countries that sends the most tourists (from 16,234 in 2024 to 16,622 in 2025, in the first six months of the year). Canada continues, however (with 428,125 travelers, almost 26% less than in 2024), followed by Cubans residing abroad (120,423, 77.6% of what went to the island the previous year) and the United States (67,044, almost 20% less).
European tourists persist in their fall
Mexicans and Argentines remain in figures similar to those of 2024 (26,702 and 23,862, respectively, 12.4% and 7.1% less), but Europeans persist in their fall: Germany (23,301 travelers, 35.9% less), France (22,048, 26.4% less) and Spain (20,822, 26.2% less).
This ONEI report comes to prop up the exhibition of the Minister of Tourism, JUAN CARLOS GARCÍA GRANDAlast Tuesday against Parliament. In it, COVID-19 was no longer mentioned, as they had done until now, as an explanation to the debacle of the sector. On the contrary, García Granda related the decrease in visitors to the “shortage of the sector”, which he said began in 2023 and “was exacerbated” for 2024.
“This has been the worst time since the collapse of the Twin Towers, in 2001, not counting the pandemic period,” said the Minister of Tourism, at a meeting more than those that were made prior to the fifth ordinary period of sessions of the National Assembly and drew THE BLACK PANORAMA For the country.
There is an “inability” in production right now to meet the demand for tourism
The Minister of the Food Industry, Alberto López, went further: there is simply an “inability” in production right now to meet the demand for tourism. Well they know hoteliers like Meliá, who since last year has an own importerMesol, to guarantee the feeding of the bones. The Spanish is one of the few that are partially saved from the shipwreck of the sector on the island. In the first quarter of the year, it registered an occupation of 40%, in front of the 24.1% national average.
Other problems in the sector mentioned in the meeting were the lack of fuel and the Airport status. On the latter, they detailed that an official report revealed “deficiencies that affect the quality of a fundamental service in mobility and tourism development.”
The report, which included the inspection of 19 of the 22 civil airports of the island and interviews with more than 400 people, showed that despite “improvements in preventive maintenance” of international terminals such as Havana, in the national terminals of Granma, Guantanamo and the tunas “the deterioration of tracks has forced the partial closure or the limitation of operations to small aircraft”.
“Neither tourists, nor electricity. The Cuban economy is still far from offering any recovery sign”
Failures in basic services such as water supply, poor bathing, connectivity problems, low cleaning even in VIP rooms, as well as delays in migration and customs processes were other accounts in the rosary of problems exhibited, rarely seen, by the authorities themselves before the Assembly.
The exhibition of the Ramo commission coincided with the publication, also on Tuesday, of the economist’s monthly report Pavel Vidalin which the tourist disaster stood out. “Neither tourists, nor electricity. The Cuban economy is still far from offering any recovery sign. The tourism industry in Cuba experiences this 2025 the worst numbers in its history since you have records. This has an impact on the shortage of currencies in the country, while the Cuban government maintains a position that evade any deep transformation exercise,” summarized the specialist in his report.
In the streets of Havana, paper and bone are palpable in flesh and bone paper: less and less foreigners are seen. And it is not uncommon to see the waning travelers followed by a cohort of beggars.
