Madrid/With more than half a month late, this Wednesday the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) published the tourism data from last September, which reaffirm the shipwreck of the sector. In the first nine months of 2025, Cuba received a total of 1,366,720 international visitors, 20.5% less (340,486) than in the same period of the previous year.
In September, 106,748 international travelers arrived on the Island, a figure lower than those registered in the same month of 2024 and 2023, and also lower than those reported in August (135,985) and in July (142,131). By country, the similar decline of the United States in the list of issuers is striking – it falls back to third place while Russia advances to second – and of the Cuban community abroad (19.6% and 20.7% respectively).
These data mainly reflect the tightening of immigration measures by Donald Trump. There are many Cuban residents in the United States who have reported in recent months having been interrogated by the authorities upon their return from a trip to the Island, which they previously made without incident.
The Caribbean country, a direct competitor of Cuba, not only continues to receive more and more tourists, but more and more Cubans
On the other hand, reunions of Cuban families, spread inside and outside the Island, in the Dominican Republic, are becoming more frequent. The Caribbean country, a direct competitor of Cuba, not only continues to receive more and more tourists, but more and more Cubans. Between January and September 2025a total of 6,575,073 international travelers entered. Of them, Cubans represent only 0.1% (6,153), but in the report for the same period last year they didn’t even appearand they have been rising in recent months: until August there were 5,246.
The Dominican Republic’s mirror is dramatic for Cuba, for whom the regime’s annual goal of adding 2.6 million visitors is definitely unfeasible. Given the trend, barely two million will be reached, which would surpass the negative record of 2024 (2.2 million), the worst mark in 17 years, discounting the two years most affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
For the rest, Canada continues to lead the list of issuing countries, although it also drops (from 695,557 travelers between January and September 2024 to 559,715 in the same period this year, 19.5% less). Russia, which follows, nevertheless suffers a brutal drop, from 141,612 last year to 88,879 this year, 37.2% less.
The greatest decrease was that of the Germans, from 47,323 to 26,735, 43.5% less, and Spain and France also contracted (27.1% and 23.8%, respectively). Of the top ten countries of origin, only Argentina increased the number of accumulated tourists so far this year (more than 7% in year-on-year terms).
To the systemic crisis that has deepened in recent years, with food shortages for the visitors themselves, long blackouts and decline in the quality of services even in luxury tourism, the epidemic of different arboviruses spread throughout the country. Last October, the United States issued a travel alert for Cuba due to the rise in infections chikungunyaand the Island itself has already warned of different outbreaks of dengue in almost all provinces.
