The salvation chart of the Cuban economy plummets !! Tourism in Cuba registers an unexpected fall and hotel occupancy collapses

Tourism has become the salvation table of the Cuban economy, as President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself has made clear, who, in the midst of the country's fuel crisis, told national television cameras that tourists could continue visiting the island because the conditions to receive them and offer them a quality service would remain above the diesel shortage that exists.

However, it seems that tourism in the greater part of the Antilles is also going through a temporary situation. Official statistics published by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei) this past weekend reveal that there is a strong collapse in the arrival of European travelers to the island between January and June of this year.

A part of this fall could be influenced by the prohibition of cruises to Cuba, which although generally used by American tourists, have also managed to mark a decrease in the arrival of European tourism to the country.

The five main European clients of the Caribbean nation have suffered a collapse of more than 10 percent: France (-10.3 percent), Germany (-10.4 percent), England (-17.8 percent), Spain (-15 percent) and especially Italy (-25 percent). The nationals of those countries were more than 516,000 in the first half of 2018 but only 437,000 in the equivalent period of this year.

Despite this, the government assures that the total arrival of tourists has grown by up to 2.4 percent, but the income they report has fallen, although ONEI, as always, says nothing about the amounts that the State earns from for each one of those visitors, which does not allow to know what the real profits of the State have been in this sector of activity.

Similarly, the hotel occupancy rate is worrying, which fell in this period by 6.8 percent and stands at 43. This means that almost six rooms out of ten have been empty during the first half of the year. .

Experts consulted by our editorial staff, who closely follow the situation experienced by tourism on the island, predict that the occupancy rate will continue to plummet in the second half of this year and call into question the logic behind the construction of new hotels for international tourism carried out by the Cuban regime.

There is a contradiction between the depressed hotel occupancy rate and the increase in hotel capacity, which should grow in more than 4,000 new rooms in 2019. Unless it is conclusively explained, the enormous investment that this implies does not seem to be justified.

These results do not arrive at the best time for the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who faces a severe crisis caused by the mismanagement of the economy, the increase in US sanctions and, above all, the collapse of his ally and Venezuelan benefactor.

This week Díaz-Canel has called on Cubans to be prepared for more sacrifices and hardships. To get out of this "situation", the president has said that tourism will play an important role. The Onei data does not seem to indicate that the economic recovery goes that way.