The federal government upgraded its Cuba travel advice on Tuesday, warning Canadians planning a winter escape on the popular Caribbean island that worsening shortages of everything from fuel to food could affect resorts.

“Exercise a high degree of caution in Cuba due to worsening shortages of electricity, fuel and basic necessities including food, water and medicine, which can also affect resorts,” the warning said.

“The situation is unpredictable and could deteriorate, disrupting flight availability on short notice.”

• Are you considering changing your travel plans to Cuba? We want to hear from you. Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.

As the warning explains, Cuba schedules long daily power cuts to reduce pressure on its electrical network and also experiences unexpected power outages that can last more than 24 hours.

Most large resorts and hotels use generators, the warning adds, but “fuel shortages may impact generator use and the availability of various services, activities and utilities such as food service, light, running water and hot water.”

In addition, Cuba faces “chronic and severe shortages of ‎basic necessities,” the warning adds, including food, bottled water, tap water, fuel, medicine and currency. Fuel shortages make travel on the island extremely challenging, the warning continues, noting public transportation, including taxis, are often disrupted.

“There are often long line-ups at gas stations that have led to altercations,” the warning notes.

CBC News has reached out to several Canadian airlines and travel operators that fly to Cuba but has not heard back yet.

Tamanisha John, an assistant politics professor at York University who studies Caribbean development, told CBC that while the energy crisis is real, it’s impacting locals more than tourists.

“It is no secret that tourists, not just in Cuba, but throughout the Caribbean are prioritized moreso than locals when states are confronted with crisis,” she said in an email statement.

‘Canada’s Hawaii’

For decades, tourism generated up to $3 billion US a year for Cuba. And Canadians have historically been the nation’s most frequent visitors, drawn by the warm weather and dazzling beaches, plus the shorter flight and lower price tag compared to other Caribbean vacations.

“It’s like Canada’s Hawaii,” someone commented on a Government of Canada Facebook post about Cuba travel advisories in January.

In November, Cuba’s Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos García Granda said, “Canadians are our most important visitors.”

But there are fears that’s changing. As the Associated Press explains, some Cubans worry that growing tensions between the U.S. and Cuba, cuts in water and power supply and large piles of garbage in popular tourist areas have spooked travellers.

New travel data from Cuba’s national statistical agency released on Monday showed a 12 per cent drop in the number of Canadian visitors to Cuba in December 2025 compared to a year earlier.

The agency also reported a 17 per cent drop in visitors overall, or some 392,450 fewer international travellers.

In December, Statistics Canada reported a 21 per cent drop in the number of Canadians who had visited Cuba from April to June 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

Overall, some 1.6 million tourists visited Cuba from January to November 2025, significantly lower than the 4.8 million in 2018 and the 4.2 million in 2019, before the pandemic hit, according to The Associated Press.

Cuba’s struggles

Cuba is hit every day with widespread outages blamed on fuel shortages and crumbling infrastructure that have deepened an economic crisis exacerbated by the fall in tourism, an increase in U.S. sanctions and a failed internal financial reform to unify the currency.

Online, reviews from travellers are mixed, with some fans on social media calling it safe, beautiful and peaceful, and saying they will return. But others caution against visiting the island.

A commenter on the Cuba Vacations and Resorts Reviews Facebook page wrote on Tuesday that he’d just returned Saturday from “the worst trip ever.”

“I was reassured that there was plenty of fuel for all tourism activities. That is a bold face lie,” he wrote, explaining that the purpose of his trip was to go diving. He could only go out once because the dive boat didn’t have fuel.

“It was my 29th trip to Cuba since 2017 and I will most likely not be going back.”

John, the Caribbean development expert, said Canada’s travel advisory concerns her for another reason, “given that tourists do not feel the worst impacts of the energy crisis in Cuba and that Cuba is the Caribbean country with one of the lowest crime rates.” 

She points to the direct U.S. threats to Cuba over the past few weeks, in the wake of its attack on Venezuela. The Trump administration has warned outright that toppling Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro would help advance another decades-long goal: dealing a blow to the Cuban government.

“It is no secret that Canada frequently supports U.S. invasions and interventions in the Caribbean region, so this advisory worries me,” John said.

“It could be indicative of impending action by the U.S. to yet again violate the sovereignty of a country located in the Caribbean.”