Cuba Begins Shutting Resorts as Fuel Crunch Hits Tourism
(Bloomberg) --
US President Donald Trump’s efforts to shut off fuel shipments to Cuba are starting to cut into parts of its crucial tourism industry.
At least two large beach resorts on Cayo Coco, on the northern coast of the Caribbean nation, will be closing as soon as this weekend due to gasoline shortages, employees reported Friday.
A worker at Mojito Cayo Coco said the resort was shutting down because there wasn’t enough fuel for employees to get to work. Instead, about 200 guests will be transferred to Sol Cayo Coco about 30 miles away.
The worker, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, blamed Trump’s sanctions and said many of his colleagues were losing their jobs. In more than two decades at the hotel, he said he’d seen temporary shutdowns for multiple hurricanes but never for non-weather-related disasters.
The front desk at Sol Cayo Coco confirmed it would be receiving guests from Mojito and Tryp Cayo Coco, which combined have about 850 rooms.
Calls and messages to Mojito and Tryp weren’t returned. Attempts to contact Melia Hotels, which operates the Tryp and Sol, were unsuccessful.
WestJet Airlines and Sunwing Vacations, which are among the travel providers that send hundreds of thousands of sun-seeking Canadians to Cuba at this time of year, said they are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to follow the direction of the Canadian government.
“Cuban authorities have unilaterally decided to regroup certain travelers in hotels with higher occupancy levels to help ensure service continuity and overall service quality,” Canadian airline and vacation provider Transat AT Inc. said in a statement. “They have confirmed that these properties remain operational and continue to meet their usual standards.”
Canada changed its travel guidance on Cuba to “exercise a high degree of caution” earlier this week, citing the energy crisis and shortages of basic goods.
In early January, Washington effectively cut off fuel shipments to Cuba from its top ally Venezuela. Trump has since threatened to slap tariffs on nations that send oil to the island.
The government in Havana has responded by reducing public transportation routes, curtailing office hours and moving some university classes online.
Cuba’s electrical union said the nation’s power output would cover less than half the island’s peak demand of 3,100 megawatts Friday night.
Tourism is one of Cuba’s flagship industries as it’s a major source of hard currency, so it’s been prioritized and fiercely protected by the government. But the island’s broader economic woes, including lengthy blackouts and shortages of food and basic goods, are hurting the sector.
Tourism arrivals fell 18% last year versus 2024, to their lowest level in at least two decades outside the Covid-19 pandemic. Foreign visitors are down 62% from their all-time high of 4.7 million people in 2018.
(Updates with Transat statement in eighth paragraph)
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