Havana, Nov 22 (EFECOM). - Hotels in Cuba registered an 18.9% occupancy rate in the first nine months of the year, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). The figure translates to four out of five hotel rooms being empty in tourist facilities between January and September, reflecting the drop in international visitors to the country, a sector considered the engine of its economy. In fact, tourism revenue in the first nine months fell by 12.1% year-on-year, reaching 82.8 million Cuban pesos (about $690,000 at the official exchange rate). The arrival of tourists in that period was 20.5% lower than in the same period of 2024, while the occupancy rate is 22.2% lower than from January to September of the previous year. The statistics published by the ONEI make it practically unfeasible to reach the government's annual goal of adding 2.6 million visitors and complicate the possibility of closing the year above the 2.2 million of 2024, which was already the worst figure in 17 years (not counting the two most affected exercises by the covid-19). By country, Canada, Russia, and the United States continued to be the three main source markets for visitors by volume. and Cuba in those years and the lifting of Washington's travel restrictions to the island.
Photo EFELa entrada
Four out of five hotel rooms in Cuba were empty from January to September
was first published in La Verdad Panamá.
Of the top 10 countries of origin, only Argentina increased the number of accumulated tourists so far this year (more than 7% year-on-year). Likewise, the number of Cubans residing abroad traveling to the island - which would be the second largest source market - has fallen by 20.7% in the year-on-year comparison. The weakness of the Cuban tourism sector has as main factors the serious economic and energy crisis the country is going through - which affects services and the experience -, the reduction of air routes and the United States sanctions. Tourism is fundamental to the government's economic recovery plans, for its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) and for the foreign exchange it represents. Cuba received 2.2 million international visitors in 2024, a total of 2.4 million in 2023 and 1.6 million in 2022, according to official figures. These figures are far from those recorded in 2018 (4.6 million) and in 2019 (4.2 million), record figures linked to the "thaw" in diplomatic relations between the U.S.
