Madrid/The Spanish hotel company Meliá has reduced its hotel availability in Cuba, adjusting it to current occupancy levels, a decision with which they seek to adapt to the limitations in supplies and levels of demand. Sources from the hotel chain have explained to EFE that this is an operational decision that affects, for the moment, three hotels – of which the Spanish agency does not name -, “based strictly on occupancy levels” with the aim of optimizing resources and with the priority of guaranteeing the best service and experience for customers.
Despite the critical energy situation on the Island, the sources assure that they currently have supplies in place to support the operational continuity of the facilities and have recalled that the Cuban tourism authorities have said that there is availability of fuel to guarantee the normal operation of the hotels they manage. The Spanish firm has its own importing company, Mesolwith which it ensures, from 2024, the provision of food, kitchenware, hygiene products and all types of items to sell in its establishments.
They have stated that they maintain “close communication and collaboration” with tour operators to offer, in any case, the best alternatives.
Likewise, they have stated that they maintain “close communication and collaboration” with tour operators to offer, in any case, the best alternatives to clients affected by these readjustments.
So much Meliá as Iberostarwith 33 and 20 hotels, respectively, have seen their profits in Cuba decline as tourism on the Island has been sinking into a bottomless pit. According to its own figures, Meliá’s occupancy in 2024 It closed at 37%, three points less than in 2023. This meant for the hotel company, as published at the time by the Spanish specialized press, pre-tax losses of four million euros, “the second largest in all the geographies in which it operates, only behind the United Kingdom, with a negative balance of 11.12 million euros.”
In its most recent quarterly report, published last novemberthe Mallorcan firm claimed to have recovered a paltry 0.7% of occupancy between June and September 2025, but the hotel occupancy ratio in Cuba, in general, remained at just 18.9% on those dates.
The lack of oil, exacerbated after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas by the United States on January 3, puts tourism in an unsustainable situation. Cuba closed 2025 with only 1,810,663 international visitorsfar from the 1.9 million predicted in Parliament in mid-December and even worse when compared to what was planned a year ago. The forecast then was 2.6 million, 30.3% more than what was finally achieved.
This same Monday, Air Canada announced that it is canceling its flights to the Island due to the lack of sufficient kerosene, and the airlines Iberia and Air Europa, also due to current limitations in supplies, have announced that they will make a technical stopover in the Dominican Republic for their connections between Cuba and Spain.
