Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites

Tue Jun 16 2026 21:25:57 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Foreign arrivals to Cuba fell 58% after US sanctions tightened, forcing airlines and hotels to pull out and worsening fuel, medicine, and food shortages.

In the first five months of 2026, Cuba received fewer than 360,000 foreign tourists, a 58.4% drop from the same period last year, according to the national statistics office Onei. The reduction follows a wave of US‑initiated sanctions that have targeted the tourism sector, prompting airlines such as Air Canada and Spanish hotel chains like Meliá and Iberostar to cease operations. The crackdown has also triggered widespread shortages of fuel, medicines and even communion wafers, and has intensified power cuts and garbage accumulation across cities.

Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites

Foreign arrivals to Cuba have plunged in the first five months of 2026, with a 58.4% fall compared to last year, according to Uruguay’s national statistics agency Onei.

The decline follows a sharp tightening of US sanctions aimed at the tourism sector—a key source of foreign income for the Cuban economy—triggering an exodus of airlines and hotel operators.

An old car drives past debris from a demolished house in Havana — Getty Images

Air Canada announced an indefinite suspension of its Cuba flights citing “ongoing political and economic uncertainty.” Earlier in February, the carrier had already halted operations because of a scarcity of aviation fuel on the island.

Spanish hotel chains Meliá and Iberostar cut services to many Cuban hotels ahead of a June 5 deadline set by Washington for companies to stop doing business with the state‑owned conglomerate Gaesa.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denounced Gaesa as a “state within a state,” accusing it of hoarding profits for a small elite while repressing dissent. The sanctions have further strained Cuba’s already fragile supply chains, exacerbating shortages of fuel, medicines and food.

State‑run outlet Cubadebate reported a drop in the survival rate for children with cancer from 85% to 65% since January, a change linked to the tightened oil blockade. With electricity outages to two hours a day, even a monastery producing communion wafers struggles to keep up with demand, leading priests to ration the bread.

Widespread power cuts have led to piles of garbage on streets, reflecting the broader impact of the US embargo on everyday life in Cuba.

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