HAVANA (AP) — On a sweltering early summer afternoon in Miami’s Little Havana, President Donald Trump told a cheering Cuban-American crowd that he was rolling back some of Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba in order to starve the island’s economy of U.S. tourism dollars and ratchet up pressure for regime change.
That doesn’t appear to be happening. Travel to Cuba is booming from dozens of countries, including the U.S. And the tourism dollars from Americans seem to be heading into Cuba’s state sector and away from private business.
Government figures show 2017 was a record year for tourism, with 4.7 million visitors pumping more than $3 billion into the island’s economy. The number of American travelers rose to 619,000, but amid the boom owners of private restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts are reporting a drop-off.
