Varadero, Cuba. Cuba’s Varadero resort area has seen tourists begin to leave after Cuba announced on February 8 it was running out of jet fuel. A Reuters survey found the fuel shortage has crippled tourism-related sectors, raising concerns for an industry vital to Cuba’s economy.
Beaches empty as fuel shortage takes hold
Varadero peninsula is known for turquoise waters, white sand and palm trees, but beaches that were once crowded began to clear out shortly after the jet fuel announcement. Industry participants said visitors may not return soon.
Airlines suspend flights and cancellations mount
Air Canada, WestJet and Transat, the top carriers from Canada, have announced they are suspending flights to Cuba. Analytics firm Cirium said the suspensions could lead to the cancellation of as many as 1,709 flights through April, a disruption likely to reduce visitor numbers by the hundreds of thousands during the peak northern hemisphere winter season.
Russia, the third-largest visitor group, plans to fly tourists out of Cuba in the coming days and then suspend all flights until the fuel shortage eases, aviation regulator Rosaviatsia said last week.
Hotels close and shift guests to better-equipped properties
NH said on Friday it had closed all of its hotels in Cuba. Melia said the same day it had closed three of its 30 Cuban hotels and had begun concentrating tourists in better-equipped hotels with higher occupancy rates.
Industry workers cite uncertainty
“There is just total uncertainty,” said Alejandro Morejon, a 53-year-old tourism guide who began work in Varadero shortly after Cuba re-opened to international tourism in the 1990s. “Everything is beginning to fall apart.”
U.S. pressure and oil shipments
Tourism is poised to become the first major domino to fall in a U.S. push to pressure Cuba’s government by blocking shipments of oil from reaching the island nation. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has declared Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security, cutting off the flow of Venezuelan oil to the island and threatening to slap tariffs on any nation supplying Cuba with fuel.
How do you expect the flight suspensions and hotel closures to affect your travel plans to Cuba?