Cuba noticed a double-digit drop within the variety of Canadians visiting the island nation this previous winter, elevating questions on what’s behind the slide.
Knowledge from Cuba’s nationwide statistical company reveals that the variety of Canadians travelling there was a minimum of 30 per cent beneath final 12 months’s numbers in January, February and March.
But the downward shift goes past guests from Canada, with Cuba additionally reporting a reducing variety of vacationer visits from Russia, Spain and Italy, amongst different international locations.
The director of the Cuban Tourism Board in Toronto was in a foreign country this week and never out there for remark. However the nation’s nationwide tourism minister has recently hinted on the “complicated” challenges Cuba is going through.
A number of home airways and journey operators affirm they’re seeing much less journey to the Caribbean nation that drew multiple million Canadian guests yearly in the years before the pandemic.
“The reported decline in Canadian journey to Cuba aligns with suggestions we’re listening to from each clients and our journey specialists,” Amra Durakovic, head of communications for Flight Centre Canada, advised CBC Information by way of e-mail.
Cuba watchers say the nation’s accumulating financial and social challenges — on full show for vacationers who enterprise away from resorts, and likewise in media experiences — could also be contributing to the decline in tourism.
“The truth is that the nation has modified considerably for the more severe for the reason that early Nineties, when Canadians started visiting the island in giant numbers,” mentioned Ricardo Torres Pérez, a Cuban economist who pays shut consideration to the tourism statistics printed by the state.
Issues on show
A outstanding and recurring downside for Cuba has been its unreliable energy grid and the impact that is having on the nation and the lives of its individuals.
For months, Cuba has seen repeated widespread energy failures, together with on back-to-back events final fall when the island was hit by successive hurricanes. There was additionally a major outage in December, and one more in March.
Andrés Pertierra, a Cuba analyst who beforehand lived and studied in Havana, was in Cuba for 2 of these main outages final 12 months.
He recollects the images proven on the information of darkened streets, juxtaposed towards photographs of the lights working at inns.
“How do you present a picture of a carefree life-style, a fast, enjoyable journey, when you’ve gotten that?” Pertierra requested.
Flight Centre’s Durakovic says travellers are taking note of the very public issues Cuba’s been having, together with the periodic energy outages and restricted availability of some important items and companies, which he says “can understandably play a task in journey choices.”
Since July 2023, Ottawa has warned Canadians to “train a excessive diploma of warning” if travelling to Cuba. The full travel advisory factors to shortages of meals, medication and gas, in addition to ongoing challenges with the ability grid.
The Present17:49Cuba’s repeated energy outages replicate deeper points
Ruaridh Nicoll, Cuba correspondent with The Guardian, tells visitor host Susan Ormiston how the island’s a number of energy shutdowns level to the general decline of the federal government’s companies — it has few true allies, is financially strapped and is vulnerable to turning into a failed state.
Torres Pérez mentioned these issues are tied to Cuba’s ongoing financial disaster.
“The disaster has affected the standard of companies, the state of infrastructure and has led to frequent blackouts,” he mentioned, noting there are additionally points round conserving cities clear with “strong waste accumulating within the streets.”
Each Torres Pérez and Pertierra additionally say that amid these struggles, Cuba is seeing extra issues with crime than it used to.
“Whereas one may argue that the island stays comparatively protected in comparison with different Latin American international locations, crime is on the rise — together with incidents of pickpocketing,” mentioned Torres Pérez.
‘I really like the place’
However the lure of Cuba’s sunny climate and sandy seashores is powerful, and for some Canadians, it is a spot they will proceed to go to.
Quebec resident Michel Dubois final visited Cuba in December and says he’ll be returning there twice this 12 months.
“I really like the place, that is it,” mentioned Dubois, a retired TV cameraman and editor, who labored for each CBC and Radio-Canada throughout his profession. “I really like the individuals.”
Dubois says he is made mates after making repeat journeys to Cuba, and helps provide them with hard-to-come by requirements, like flashlights, when he visits.
Sharon Pedley, of Brampton, Ont., intends to do the identical, when she returns to Cuba later this 12 months.
She and her husband will pack an additional suitcase filled with requirements — like over-the-counter medicine — to deliver for Cuban mates they’ve met by their prior visits.
“You will discover a variety of the vacationers that I do know of, they will do the identical,” mentioned Pedley.
The help that Pedley, Dubois and different like-minded vacationers present on this method might profit particular person Cubans, however these guests additionally present the nation with a important supply of international forex.
Pertierra, the Cuba analyst, notes that as tourism wanes, “that can imply much less international forex,” which is important for the nation to have with a purpose to import wanted items and provides.
A flip to China?
This previous week, Reuters reported that Cuba is looking to China as a doable supply of recent vacationers.
In March, the official Cuban Granma newspaper lauded the growing number of Chinese language vacationers heading to Cuba in recent times — from greater than 8,000 guests in 2022, to a reported 26,760 in 2024.
However these numbers are far decrease than the greater than 500,000 Canadians who travelled to Cuba within the first three months of 2025 — and that is at a stage 30 per cent beneath final 12 months.
Canadian journey suppliers level to continued curiosity from shoppers, regardless of what the Cuban statistics recommend.
“Though there was a slight softening in bookings for the early a part of 2025 in comparison with the earlier 12 months, we’re additionally seeing indicators of stabilization within the final month,” Marie-Christine Pouliot, supervisor of public relations for Air Transat, mentioned by way of e-mail.
Air Canada, in the meantime, advised CBC Information that “Cuba has been performing very steadily for us.”
Torres Pérez says Canada has lengthy been Cuba’s single-largest tourism market. Requested the way it may probably act to drive up these numbers, he advised efforts could possibly be made to enhance the standard of service and make sure the hospitality sector has the provides it must serve guests.
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