A major Spanish hospitality company has become the latest international business to pull back from Cuba’s struggling tourism market, shuttering nearly half of its island operations amid escalating U.S. economic pressure.
Meliá will end operations at 15 of its 34 Cuban properties, according to the state-run website Cubadebate, delivering another significant setback to the Caribbean nation’s critical tourism industry that has been in steep decline since reaching its highest point in 2018.
The hospitality company cited “a sense of corporate responsibility and external factors that have significantly affected the operation, legality and security of these establishments” as reasons for the May 26 decision, according to Wednesday’s report.
The announcement came just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order broadening economic restrictions against Cuba. The sanctions primarily focused on Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate run by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, which the U.S. characterized as a national security threat.
The presidential directive freezes foreign company assets, seizes their U.S. accounts and bans travel by their shareholders, investors and staff members, effectively cutting off their access to American financial systems.
GAESA, the Cuban business empire established in the 1990s, controls numerous enterprises ranging from vehicle rental services and retail outlets to transportation firms. The conglomerate partners with Meliá in hotel operations through its subsidiary company, Gaviota.
The Spanish firm represents one of Cuba’s most significant tourism industry allies. Before this partial exit, the company managed approximately 14,000 hotel rooms across the island.
Companies from Spain and Canada represent the largest foreign investors in Cuba’s hospitality industry, according to Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute’s Global South program, a Washington think tank.
“With the lack of international tourism, the fuel shortages, and just the broader decline since COVID…I’m sure that these companies will be rethinking their operations in Cuba with major implications for the people of Cuba, not just GAESA,” he said. “There are thousands of Cubans who work in these hotels.”
Many of the properties Meliá abandoned in scenic locations including Varadero, Cayo Santa María and Jardines del Rey resort areas “were already closed and inactive due to energy problems and the drop in demand in Cuba,” Cubadebate reported.
Cuban officials have attributed prolonged power outages, water shortages, supply chain issues, healthcare system problems and widespread daily life disruptions to the U.S. energy blockade.
Workers in Cuba’s deteriorating tourism industry expressed dismay over Meliá’s decision.
“It’s going to affect us, our families, and everyone involved in tourism. Our pay and income depend on this,” said Erich López, a driver of a green 1950s Dodge who has been driving for two decades to support his family.
For Carlos Luis Carbonel, a 62-year-old parking attendant who works in front of the giant Meliá Cohiba hotel in Havana, the situation “is going to be a blow.”
“This is terrible for everyone: for tour guides, for parking attendants, for hotel workers, for everyone,” he said.
Additional major hospitality brands including Canadian-owned Royalton and Spain’s Iberostar have reduced or halted their Cuban operations within the past week.
Cuban tourism, which peaked at 4.3 million visitors in 2019, experienced a dramatic decline in first-quarter arrivals this year, dropping 48% compared to the same timeframe in 2025.
Just 298,000 tourists visited Cuba during January, February and March, down from 573,300 international visitors in the corresponding period last year, government statistics show.
On Wednesday, workers removed the massive, recognizable signage from the Royalton Paseo del Prado hotel at Old Havana’s entrance, The Associated Press confirmed during a site visit. The 500-room Iberostar Selection — also called Tower K — the most contemporary and upscale hotel scheduled to debut in 2025, towering more than 150 meters (490 feet) high, has remained shuttered for several days.
Air carriers including World2Fly, Air France and Iberia have scrapped flights to and from Cuba.
Cuba’s Central Bank also announced Wednesday that Visa and MasterCard services on the island would be halted after foreign entities ended their relationships with FINCIMEX S.A., a Cuban financial agency connected to GAESA.
Last month, Canadian mining company Sherritt International Corp. signed a preliminary deal with Gillon Capital LLC, a family office tied to a former Trump adviser, to divest its ownership in a Cuban mining operation.
In late January, Trump warned of potential tariffs against any nation that sells or provides oil to Cuba, as his administration pushes for political and governmental changes. This action has intensified a crisis stemming from seven decades of U.S. economic restrictions.
Despite earlier talks between U.S. and Cuban representatives this year, relations have deteriorated. In late May, former President Raúl Castro faced charges in a U.S. indictment for his alleged involvement in shooting down two civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles in 1996 over Cuban waters.
