Cuba is heading into the winter holiday season with its tourism industry in deep crisis, as the collapse in visitor numbers pushes Canadian holidaymakers towards Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica instead. Official figures show the island received about 477,707 international visitors between January and September 2026, a fall of 65.1 percent compared with the same period in 2025, according to Travel and Tour World.

The sharpest losses have come from Canada, traditionally Cuba's largest source of visitors. Canadian arrivals fell 76.9 percent to roughly 129,247 in the first nine months of the year. Cuba's National Office of Statistics and Information recorded just 128,400 Canadian visitors between January and August, down from 526,239 in the same period of 2025, a drop of 75.6 percent, or nearly 398,000 fewer travellers.

Flights grounded since February

The downturn began in February 2026, when Air Canada suspended its Cuba flights amid shortages of Jet A-1 aviation fuel at nine international airports across the island. Air Transat and WestJet followed, and by June all three carriers had abandoned tentative restart dates and suspended service indefinitely. Canadians can still reach Cuba, but only on connecting itineraries through countries such as Mexico, Panama or the Bahamas.

March showed how abruptly the market vanished. Only 511 Canadians arrived in Cuba that month, compared with 98,663 in March 2025, a collapse of 99.48 percent. Canada's government continues to advise against non-essential travel to the island, citing shortages of fuel, electricity, food, water and medicine.

Rival resorts pick up the demand

Tour operators report that the displaced demand is moving quickly to competing destinations. Sunwing Vacations reported a 50 percent year-on-year increase in bookings to the Dominican Republic, with Puerto Plata up about 60 percent, while about a quarter of its displaced Cuba bookings shifted to Mexico. Bookings to Mazatlan rose by more than 70 percent, bookings to Liberia in Costa Rica doubled, and Sunwing reported a 35 percent rise for Rio Hato in Panama and growth of more than 20 percent for Freeport in the Bahamas.

The Dominican Republic welcomed about 9.24 million visitors between January and September 2026, including air arrivals and cruise passengers, underlining how far ahead of Cuba its resort industry now stands. Statistics Canada recorded about 1.32 million Canadian visits to Mexico in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 441,000 to the Dominican Republic and 193,000 to Costa Rica.

Calls to restore a weekly flight

With the winter season approaching, the Canadian Network on Cuba, a coalition of more than 26 organisations, appealed in Ottawa on 27 October for the federal government to help restore at least one direct flight a week on humanitarian grounds, arguing that the loss of air links is hurting Cuban-Canadian families as well as the island's tourism industry. The group is also urging Ottawa to lift its travel advisory and to use Canada's Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act to shield Canadian businesses in Cuba from the effects of United States sanctions.

Havana has responded with what it calls a historic package of 176 free-market reforms unveiled at the start of the summer, aimed at loosening government control, encouraging private business and attracting foreign investment. For now, though, the numbers point the other way. With no Canadian airline planning to resume Cuba flights and rival destinations reporting strong booking growth, this winter looks set to be the first in decades without the Canadian visitors who once filled Cuba's beach resorts.