Cuba loses 65.1 percent of its international visitors through September
The ONEI report records 890,140 fewer arrivals than in the same period of 2025, while Canada remains the leading market despite a steep contraction.
International arrivals in Cuba totaled 477,707 from January through September 2026 after falling 65.1 percent year over year, according to the ONEI report. The difference from the same period in 2025 was 890,140 visitors, with declines both in the leading source countries and among Cubans living outside the island.
Canada remained the largest tourism market, although its arrivals fell 76.9 percent and posted the biggest absolute loss in the breakdown, with 430,460 fewer visitors. Cubans living abroad ranked second: 117,386 traveled to the island, 60,081 fewer than in the comparable period. In a category separate from the one used for that community, the United States accounted for 45,895 visitors after losing 42,984 arrivals from the previous year.
Mexico also declined, with 24,369 travelers, as did Russia, with 21,235 visitors and a loss of 67,205 arrivals. Argentina recorded 15,260 tourists, a drop of 39.9 percent, while Spain stood at 11,182 after falling 69.6 percent. Colombia sent 10,672 people, equivalent to 40.6 percent of the total recorded a year earlier. China and Italy did not escape the contraction: their figures were 10,238 and 9,278 visitors, down 43 percent and 41.7 percent, respectively.
The period's lowest monthly result came in September, when 27,354 international visitors entered the country. Until then, June had marked the low with 28,100 arrivals. At the end of August, Cuba had accumulated 450,353 visitors and a year-over-year decline of 64.4 percent, meaning September deepened the downturn already visible in the tourism figures.
The deterioration follows the result recorded in 2025, when arrivals barely exceeded 1.8 million and fell short of the state's target of 2.6 million. That was the worst result since 2002, excluding the pandemic years. The recent trajectory had already shown a decline: the country received 2.4 million visitors in 2023 and 2.2 million in 2024. Volumes were higher before that period, reaching 4.6 million in 2018 and 4.2 million in 2019.
The contraction affects an industry important to gross domestic product and among the country's principal sources of foreign currency, alongside remittances and medical missions. Measures under consideration include new forms of private investment linked to tourism, including hotel management, car rentals and passenger-transport services.