Ay! Castro, Inc.’s Ministry of Tourism is not admitting defeat yet, but it looks as if 2024 will be a great disappointment. As usual, Castro, Inc. has taken to exaggerating the number of tourists in order to hide the growing crisis. The empty streets Old Havana make it difficult to deny the truth, however. Once teeming with tourists, the garishly painted district of Habana Vieja has turned into a ghost town. Even the cigar lady mammies seem to have vanished. The same tourist drought is also hitting other Cuban cities short on beach resorts, such as Cienfuegos. Click on the slide show above for a chilling tour of the empty streets and plazas.
Loosely translated from CiberCuba
The historic center of Old Havana, once a bustling area where foreign tourists could be found sitting in parks or cafes, enjoying live music in restaurants, or simply walking around, now presents a picture of sad solitude.
The streets and squares, where large groups of foreign visitors used to roam, are completely empty, as confirmed by CiberCuba last Saturday morning, during a time when the most emblematic places in the city are usually packed.
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