Decline of U.S. Visitors to Cuba   

In June 2019, the U.S. instituted a ban on cruise ships from a U.S. port going to Cuba. It had an immediate impact. That same month the number of U.S. visitors was down 20% from the prior June. And the similar figures for July 2019 were down 23.6%, and the Cuban government reduced its forecast of foreign visitors for the entire year to 4.3 million from the original forecast of more than 5 million; the new forecast is 8.5% drop from the 4.7 million visitors in 2018.[1]

This decline is impacting the state tourism sector as well as the many restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts and taxi drivers in the fledgling Cuban private sector that the U.S. says it wants to support. Some foreign companies in Cuba’s tourism sector also have been adversely affected by the U.S. recently permitting lawsuits by U.S. nationals claiming expropriation of their Cuban properties.

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[1] Reuters, Tourism to Cuba Plunges After Trump’s Tightening of Travel Ban: Data, N.Y. Times (Aug. 21, 2019).