by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:11 PM ET, Wed September 18, 2019
New data from the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba shows a sharp decline in tourism activity to the Caribbean island in June, which local officials attribute to sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.
Though the island saw a 2.4 percent increase in international passenger arrivals, there was an abrupt 20 percent drop in visitation once the US sanctions took effect.
Cuba's Tourism Minister, Manuel Marrero had predicted the decline in tourism when Trump tightened visitation laws for Americans, creating more confusion among American travelers.
Marrero had anticipated that the sixth month of the year would show a decrease of arrivals close to 20 percent and that 2019 would culminate with a total drop of 10 percent.
The new data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information of Cuba published this week bears out Marrero's predictions, according to a report from Hosteltur.
Arrivals in June were down 20 percent compared to the same month of 2018.
In addition to losing ground among American visitors, Cuba has also lost ground with tourists from Russia, China, and Europe. Visitation from Canada, its main provider of tourists, also fell.
The one bit of positive news in the new data is that between January and June, overnight stays remained stable, with a slight 0.3 percent increase. There was also a 0.2 percent increase in total spending recorded by tourism entities, according to Hosteltur.
News for the island's hotel industry, however, was dismal. Occupancy rates went from an increase of 46.8 percent in the first half of 2018 to 43.6 percent during the same period this year. Accommodation income fell 10 percent.
In June, the Trump administration announced its latest crackdown on travel to the country for U.S. citizens. The administration issued a ban on "people to people" travel, which is the most common way Americans had visited the island.
The administration also put a stop to all cruises visiting the country, which had been a boon for the small island nation, bringing in some 800,000 travelers last year who had plenty of money to spend.
Though it is still entirely possible and quite easy to visit the island on a "support for the Cuban people" visa, which is not substantially different from the "people to people" visa that Americans were previously using to visit, the damage by the administration has been done. Many Americans are now unclear about how to visit and opt to take their vacations in destinations that do not present such challenges.
The impact of the policy changes has been devastating for island residents.
There has been a precipitous drop in income for Cuban businesses, many of which had felt optimistic enough under the Obama administration to open their doors or expand their operations.
The sudden shift in the country's fortunes has also brought about challenges for some of Cuba's youngest residents, those who had been contemplating leaving the island to pursue brighter futures in the past but then decided to stay when President Obama ushered in improved relations with the United States.
The Trump administration had said its policies were aimed at punishing the Cuban government and were designed to increase support for the average Cuban citizen, but in fact, just the opposite has happened.
Cuban economists have told TravelPulse that it is everyday people who are suffering most.
"In the end, it's all people who are impacted," Giulio Ricci, a Cuban economist who studied at the London School of Economics, recently told TravelPulse. "It's kind of cynical to say we're not affecting the people, we're just affecting the government."
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