Tourism in Cuba
Tourism in Cuba is an economic sector that generates over 4.7 million arrivals as of 2018, and is one of the main sources of revenue for the island. With its favorable climate, beaches, colonial architecture and distinct cultural history, Cuba has long been an attractive destination for tourists. "Cuba treasures 253 protected areas, 257 national monuments, 7 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 7 Natural Biosphere Reserves and 13 Fauna Refuge among other non-tourist zones."
Having been Spain's closest colony to the United States until 1898, in the first part of the 20th century Cuba continued to develop with the influence of big investments, the creation of various industries, and growing travel to support mostly US interests and corporations. Its proximity and close relationship with the United States also helped Cuba's market economy prosper fairly quickly. As relations between Cuba and the United States deteriorated rapidly after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the resulting expropriation and nationalization of businesses, the island became cut off from its traditional market by an ongoing embargo and a travel ban was imposed on U.S. citizens visiting Cuba. The tourist industry declined to record low levels within two years of Castro's accession to power.
Unlike the US, Canada has maintained normal relations with Cuba, and Canadians increasingly visit Cuba for vacations. Approximately one-third of visitors to Cuba in 2014 were Canadians. The Cuban government has moderated its state ownership policies and allowed for localized and small private businesses since 1980. It also pursues revitalization programs aimed at boosting tourism. The United States reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2015, in a period referred to as the Cuban Thaw, and the tourism industry has not benefited as much as was predicted from normalized relations with America as the Trump administration reinstated a number of the pre-Cuban Thaw restrictions, and imposed fresh restrictions.
Overview
Until 1997, contacts between tourists and Cubans were de facto outlawed by the Communist regime. Following the collapse of Cuba's chief trading partner the Soviet Union, and the resulting economic crisis known as the Special Period, Cuba's government embarked on a major program to restore old hotels, remaining old pre-communism American cars, and restore several Havana streets to their former glory, as well as build beach resorts to bolster the tourist industry to bring in much-needed finance to the island. To ensure the isolation of international tourism from the state-isolated Cuban society, it was to be promoted in enclave resorts where, as much as possible, tourists would be segregated from Cuban society, known as "enclave tourism" and "tourism apartheid". By the late 1990s, tourism surpassed Cuba's traditional export industry, sugar, as the nation's leading source of revenue. Visitors come primarily from Canada and western Europe and tourist areas are highly concentrated around Varadero, Cayo Coco, the beach areas north of Holguin, and Havana. The impact on Cuba's socialist society and economy has been significant. However, in recent years Cuba's tourism has decreased due to the economic recession, escalating foreign investment conflicts and fears, and internal economic restrictions. Since its reopening to tourism in the mid-1990s Cuba has not met the projected growth, has had relatively little restoration, and slow growth. A lack of foreign investment has also had a negative effect. Since then, the Dominican Republic has surpassed Cuba in tourism, new development, and investment.History
Early tourism
has long been a popular attraction for tourists. Between 1915 and 1930, Havana hosted more tourists than any other location in the Caribbean. The influx was due in large part to Cuba's proximity to the United States, where restrictive prohibition on alcohol and other pastimes stood in stark contrast to the island's traditionally relaxed attitude to drinking and other pastimes. This is typified by Irving Berlin's 1919 foxtrot song, "I'll See You in C-U-B-A," the lyrics of which ridicule drinking in speakeasies and instead advertise Cuba as a travel destination "where wine is flowing". Tourism became Cuba's third largest source of foreign currency, behind the two dominant industries of sugar and tobacco. Cuban drinks such as the daiquiri and mojito became common in the United States during this time, after Prohibition was repealed.A combination of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the end of Prohibition, and World War II severely dampened Cuba's tourist industry, and it wasn't until the 1950s that numbers began to return to the island in any significant force. During this period, American organized crime came to dominate the leisure and tourist industries, a modus operandi outlined at the infamous Havana Conference of 1946. By the mid-1950s, Havana became one of the main markets and the favorite route for the narcotics trade to the United States. Despite this, tourist numbers grew steadily at a rate of 8% a year and Havana became known as "the Latin Las Vegas".
File:Cuba011.jpg|thumb|270px|left|Hotel Nacional in Havana. The hotel's guestlist includes Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway, and also played host to the infamous Havana Conference in 1946
Decline after Cuban Revolution
Immediately upon becoming President of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Manuel Urrutia ordered the closing of many bars and gambling halls associated with prostitution and the drug trade, effectively ending Cuba's image as a hedonistic escape. A new governmental body, the National Institute of the Tourism Industry, was established to encourage more tourism; taking over hotels, clubs, and beaches making them available to the general public at low rates. Tourist board chief Carlos Almonia announced a program of huge investment in hotels and the creation of a new airport. But fears of Cuba's post-revolutionary status amongst Americans, who constituted 8 out of 10 visitors, meant a rapid decline in tourism to the island.In January 1961, relations between the nations sharply deteriorated as a result of bank and business expropriations, mass exodus, summary executions, and private property being declared illegal by a now openly communist regime being backed by the USSR. Tourism travel to Cuba was soon declared by the U.S. State Department to be contrary to U.S. foreign policy and against the national interest. Tourism that year dropped to a record low of a mere 4180, forcing a dramatic downsizing of Cuba's tourist plans. Visitors to Cuba during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s were comparatively rare. The number of tourists to the island did increase slowly, but it wasn't until 1989 that they equaled pre-Revolutionary numbers.
Reforms and revitalization
The collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused a crisis in the Cuban economy. The Soviets were Cuba's chief trading partner and had effectively sheltered Cuba's sugar industry with large subsidies for 30 years. The lack of economic diversification during this period, and the sudden loss of key markets such as the Eastern Bloc, sent the country into a deep economic depression euphemistically known in Cuba as the Special Period. The crisis precipitated the communist regime to find new avenues of income.Policies were drawn up to satisfy the growing tourist markets of Canada and Europe to replace Cuba's reliance on the sugar industry and gain much-needed foreign currency rapidly. A new Ministry of Tourism was created in 1994, and the Cuban state invested heavily in tourist facilities. Between 1990 and 2000, more than $3.5 billion was invested in the tourist industry. The number of rooms available to international tourists grew from 12,000 to 35,000, and the country received a total of 10 million visitors over that period. By 1995 tourism had surpassed sugar as Cuba's chief income source.
Today, travelers from around the world visit Cuba, arriving by a mixture of scheduled and charter airlines to one of Cuba's ten international airports. By far the largest number come from Canada, where arrivals have been increasing by almost 10% annually since 2007. Europeans follow next, primarily arriving from Great Britain, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. According to the official government agency, it is unknown exactly how many Americans traveled to Cuba each year as tourists, in violation of U.S. trade policy. According to some statistics around 20,000 to 30,000 Americans illegally traveled to Cuba every year, while the Cuban government put it higher at over 60,000. Americans could either fly on direct charter flights or reach Cuba via flights from Canada or Mexico. In June 2016, the US government authorized six airlines to start direct scheduled flights to Cuba. In January 2015, the US government changed its legislation to make it easier for travel from the US to Cuba, further amended in March 2016. While parts of these loosened restrictions were later revoked by President Trump in 2017, travel to Cuba remains legal for US citizens who meet certain requirements. As of 2019, Americans are legally allowed to go to Cuba with an OFAC self-reporting General License if they meet the requirements for one of the 12 categories of legal travel Independent travelers to Cuba can qualify for the "Support for the Cuban People" category by maintaining a full-time schedule of activities that fulfill this requirement.
Until 2015, all visitors paid a $25 exit tax at the airport before departure but this is now included in the costs of the flight.
Tourism in Cuba declined sharply in early 2025, with international arrivals down 29.1% and total travelers falling by nearly 78% compared to the same period in 2024. The downturn followed a 9.6% drop in international tourism in 2024 compared to 2023, continuing a downward trend. Contributing factors included economic and energy crises, poor service quality, and limited air connectivity, with major markets such as Canada, Russia, Spain, and Italy seeing significant declines.