Can Cuba’s tourism adapt to survive after Covid devastated the industry?

theguardian.com:

Cuba’s leaders arrived on the spectacular beach at Varadero this week in an effort to restart a tourism industry whose pandemic-induced devastation was all too apparent in the swaths of empty loungers on the miles of perfect sand.

So crucial is tourism to Cuba’s economy – and therefore its stability – that President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and at least seven further ministers attended the launch of FITCuba, its annual tourism fair.

Marrero Cruz highlighted the island’s safety and its success in combating Covid, before praising an aggressive, if controversial, hotel building programme. He quoted Fidel Castro as saying: “Each hotel that is opened is a factory that produces an income for the country.”

Yet Cuba’s recovery faces tough obstacles, and there are signs it is not keeping up with its competitors. “Europe is booming,” said one hotelier who asked not to be named. “And the word is that the Dominican Republic and Mexico are both doing well.”

Last year, with its main market Canada closed, Cuba pinned its hopes on Russians, who made up 40% of all visitors in 2021. Then came the war in Ukraine. Flights stopped almost overnight and 8,000 Russian holidaymakers (and several hundred Ukrainians) desperately tried to get home.

Juan Carlos García Granda, the minister of tourism, also blamed “the other pandemic, the one that has lasted over six decades … the cruel US blockade”. While this is a common government complaint, there is evidence to support his contention that it had “recently been stepped up”.

Expatriate WhatsApp groups have lit up over the last two weeks with complaints that travellers flying from Havana to American cities are suddenly having their ESTAs permanently rescinded, the visa