The economic decline of tourism
Today I am going to talk to you about something that has been giving you a lot to talk about in the last few years: tourism in Cuba. And no, I am not an economist or anything like that, despite being good with numbers and statistics.
In the year 2022, Cuba's hotel occupancy rate was at a measly 15.6%. Those numbers were never that low in the world of Cuban tourism. If that is true.
Unlike Cuba's hotel occupancy which has not been capable of a post-pandemic recovery, other tourist destinations in the region already enjoy statistics similar to pre-pandemic stages. Beach destinations in Mexico, where in May 2022 they were enjoying a healthy 63.9%, and the Dominican Republic, with rates above 70% in the same year.
For hotels to be profitable or begin to see some profit, hotel occupancy should be above 52% of capacity,
Two questions arise from the above: where did the resources come from to cover all those losses in Cuban hotels, and second, why continue to invest so much money in the hotel industry if it is in a slump? Monreal quoted an article from a Cuban state media outlet called Cubadebate that talked about the opening of a new hotel in Havana. Is it a good idea to open a hotel in the midst of this tourism disaster?
Looking at Cuba's official tourism statistics for January 2023, and what he saw was not exactly encouraging. It turns out that visitors in January 2023 only accounted for 63.3% of the January 2020 figure, let alone the record January 2018 figure,
The funny thing is that the recovery in tourism in January 2023 was mainly due to visitors from Canada, but even so, Canada's numbers only came in at 79.8% of the Canadian visitor level in January 2020. And that leads us to wonder what is happening with the other tourist-sending markets to Cuba.
But that's not the end of the story! The Cuban community living abroad also played a role in this tourism drama. Despite having a much smaller number of visitors than Canada, they ranked second among the top eight tourist issuers to Cuba, with a partial recovery that looks a bit like Canada's, reaching 77.2% of the January 2020 figure.
The four main European issuers (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) did not contribute much to the recovery of Cuban tourism in January 2023. The sum of all their visitors was lower than that of the Cuban community.
Tourism in Cuba seems to be going through a complicated time, with scary hotel occupancy rates and a recovery that is going slower than everyone expected. But don't worry, all is not lost. Cuba is a beautiful destination with a lot to offer, and I'm sure that with a little effort, they can find a way to revive the tourism industry. I mainly blame the country's inept government and consider that the system has been a major cause of tourism choosing more economically liberal destinations.
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Original Spanish text: Translated and formatted with Hive Translator by @noakmilo.
Twitter @bluisdey
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