Cuba's tourism and power sectors crippled by U.S. sanctions

Cuban officials say the island’s tourism industry – once the second‑largest source of foreign currency and an employer of more than 300,000 people – is now in "near‑total paralysis" after a series of U.S. sanctions and a severe fuel shortage. Visitor arrivals fell from 1.81 million in 2025 to just 359,491 between January and May 2026, a 58 % drop, and hotel occupancy slid to 12.9 % in the first quarter of 2026. About 73 % of the country’s hotels are closed and roughly 25,000 tourism workers face an uncertain future. The crisis was triggered when the U.S. designated the Cuban military conglomerate GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.) as a sanctions target in May 2026 under Executive Order 14404 signed by President Donald Trump.

At the same time, a nationwide blackout left an estimated 10 million Cubans without electricity after the state utility Union Eléctrica de Cuba reported a collapse of the power grid. The outage follows a series of blackouts since July and is linked to the U.S. oil embargo that has cut off traditional fuel supplies from Venezuela and disrupted imports from Mexico. Havana has recently opened a limited foreign‑financed fuel import programme and allowed nearly 200 Cuban enterprises to take part in wholesale fuel distribution, but the energy system remains under severe strain.