Cuba defined the keys to the recovery of its tourism, one of the sectors hardest hit by the economic, commercial, and financial blockade, because the United States is aware of the local potential in this area.

The directions for working to return the leisure industry to the forefront have been outlined, and there’s no more time to waste, as the country needs the foreign currency that only this sector can provide today with the necessary agility demanded by the national context characterized by a war economy.

Swamped in a crisis that Washington is fueling everywhere, the Cuban nation is determined to escape the current ordeal. The option is to survive and develop at the same time.

The cards are on the table, as evidenced in the debates surrounding the 2024 annual reports on the performance of tourism and economic activities.

Faced with the reality that this train is not pulling as it should and that the other wagons don’t play their role either, the call points to a commitment to recovery by seeking truly proactive solutions and actions.

The government insists that the leisure industry has the potential to return to star levels only if it can focus its actions on improved specialized service and quality customer-employee relations; become more competitive, diversify source markets—currently the main ones are Canada, Russia, and Latin America—and promote multi-destination, a long-sought goal that has been put on hold like other options.

Such obligatory points are a debt of the industry, to which are added other urgent needs such as the repeated need to expand flight connections, which the domestic industry responds to the supply demands of the sector, and a strategy to improve internet connection services is kept.

A transformation in tourism management is required, which involves multiple actions and aims to combat negative trends, establish alliances with other sectors such as aviation, redesign products, and consolidate circuits, a modality preferred by customers, as they can experience several national recreational centers in a single visit.

These priorities have been analyzed at the highest level and in meetings with labor groups, where the clear emphasis has been on generating more revenue. This is one of the recognized attributes of tourism due to its dynamism, and for which Cuba has natural resources, a skilled workforce, and a considerable number of hotel rooms of various types, in modern and colonial cities, beaches, keys, and rural areas.

However, we are up against the criminal hostility of the United States, as has been known for more than six decades. Upon his return to the Oval Office, the current president, Donald Trump, ordered Cuba's inclusion on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.

All of this is accompanied by a media war against the tourism industry, aimed at discrediting the destination. On top of all that they have long since blocked transactions, reduced cruise ship traffic to virtually zero, torpedoed investments, and threatened potential businessmen interested in investing in the Caribbean country.

They also impose fines, freeze bank accounts, and use visas as a means of pressure, in a portfolio full of endless anti-Cuban maneuvers.

Such is the situation with which tourism must steer its course in 2025.

For the Cuban tourism industry to take off again, despite the challenging panorama, is an urgent priority. Resisting and developing is not an easy imperative, we admit, even more so in these turbulent times; but this, and no other, is the path forward.

If any sector can and should generate more foreign currency for the constrained local economy, it’s this one, which is now called upon to undergo a comprehensive transformation of its management to contribute to what Cuba demands and urgently needs.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff