Many Cubans Continue to Bet on Tourism for Survival
As a source of income for thousands of families and private businesses
By Amado Viera
HAVANA TIMES – From time to time, the daily difficulties make Jose Manuel* reconsider the possibility of closing his rental house (known as a casa particular). “If it weren’t for the fact that it’s still the economic support of the family, I would have done it a long time ago,” he confesses.
The daily stay of a single guest can provide an income equivalent to his monthly salary as a doctor, or to his wife’s, teaching at an art school. Along with the rest of the family, they live in Morón, in the province of Ciego de Ávila, 400 kilometers southeast of Havana. This small city is the gateway to the Jardines del Rey archipelago, one of Cuba’s main tourist destinations.
In the mid-2010s, after returning from a medical mission in Africa, Jose Manuel decided to invest his savings into repairing the house he had inherited from his paternal grandparents to set up his hostel. The business had a promising start, but later the sanctions from Trump’s first presidency, the pandemic, and the economic crisis made it increasingly difficult to operate.
Currently, finding fruit, eggs, and milk, the basic components of any breakfast, is a challenge. “I’ve had money and still had nothing to buy because everything is so inconsistent. The extreme case was when I had no choice but to go to the homes of relatives who had fruit trees to collect some bananas, a couple guavas, and a few eggs to prepare breakfast for my guests at the time. They couldn’t believe me when I told them that it was impossible to find those products anywhere in the city. Not even when we live in a predominantly agricultural province,” he says.
These are not times of a political thaw
The interruptions in food supply are largely due to the fuel shortage. On average, Cuba operates with a third less fuel than it needs to maintain its basic functions. The deficit is greater for gasoline and diesel. The situation is so dire that since February 19, higher octane gasoline is only sold in dollars. On the same date, the government drastically reduced the gasoline and diesel allocations to its institutions.
For the thousands of families involved in tourism, the situation also translates into difficulties in acquiring fuel for the power generators their businesses use to reduce the impact of frequent blackouts, and in a reduced “mobility” of tourists.
Before the pandemic, many foreign visitors would arrive in the country via Havana and after several days there, rent cars to travel to natural reserves like Viñales or the Cienaga de Zapata, and to heritage cities like Trinidad. After several days, they would finish their stays on the paradisiacal beaches of the north coast. Businesses like Jose Manuel’s relied on these “independent” travelers who preferred to save some money by staying in B&Bs in Moron instead of expensive hotels in the keys. In their rented cars, daily trips to the beaches were easy.
With the current fuel crisis, that model is unfeasible. In 2024, Cuba received 2.2 million foreign tourists, just over half of the number in 2019, and even fewer than in 2023. This sharp decrease was compounded by the difficulties visitors had in exploring the island themselves, one of the main attractions of local tourism.
An official from Havanatur, Cuba’s main state-run car rental company, anonymously admitted to this report that their company lacks enough vehicles to meet even the demand from international tourists.
Additionally, “there’s the problem with gas stations, which often do not operate due to blackouts or simply run out of fuel because of irregular distribution cycles. Earlier this year, in the city of Camagüey (550 kilometers southeast of Havana), some foreign tourists who were passing through even went to the government headquarters to demand that they sell them fuel so they could continue their trips. Rightfully, they argued that they weren’t at fault for the gas stations authorized to sell in dollars being without electricity,” he narrated.
“Today, the situation is very difficult in every sense. In addition to the usual operating costs, there are many other unpredictable factors. Running a business while enduring 15 to 20 hours of daily power outages, with unstable suppliers and workforce, is almost reckless. The good times of the Obama ‘Thaw’ era, when Cuba was trendy and we even had an increasing demand from US tourists, are long gone,” confessed Michel Oliva, the manager of a private bar in the city of Ciego de Ávila.
Meanwhile, the government is pinning its hopes on luxury hotels, particularly newly built ones. The best-known and most controversial, the Iberostar Selection La Habana, was inaugurated on February 23. Others, not as well-known but equally ostentatious, have been dominating the landscape of Havana in recent years, in real estate operations about which little is known. The money spent on just one of these projects could have restored several of the old classic hotels in Havana, like the Riviera, or created a support fund for the small family businesses across the island.
“My personal feeling is that we’re on our own. The government only remembers us for taxes, even though the country’s reality is getting harder every day. However, there’s no other option but to keep going. At some point, things will have to improve,” reflects Jose Manuel. The three rooms he prepared years ago to rent are all his and his family’s assets. At least for him, there’s no turning back.
*A pseudonym is used at the request of the interviewee.