Spanish hotel chain Meliá will shutter its remaining Cuban properties this Friday.
The hotelier closed 15 of its 34 Cuban establishments in June after the US president signed an executive order demanding foreign companies cut ties with Cuba's military-linked tourism conglomerate or face severe sanctions.
According to an AFP report, Meliá sent Spanish stock regulators a statement earlier this week outlining how growing pressure from the American administration, including sanctions, has made it “impossible, de facto and de jure, to maintain even minimal operational stability.”
Ilha Bela Gestao E Turismo, Melia’s Portuguese subsidiary, had been running the company’s Cuban operations since the 1990s. With 14,000 rooms across the island, it was one of the biggest foreign operators in the country.
However, Cuban tourism is at a historic low with the US effectively laying siege to the island, cutting off its energy supplies with tariff threats against trading partners. Citizens of the communist nation are now grappling with days-long power outages, food shortages and dwindling medical supplies.
The current US administration has also threatened to invade the island.
As previously reported by Open Jaw, foreign tourism operators have left Cuba en masse in recent months, including Blue Diamond Resorts, which ceased its operations in Cuba this April.
The privately held Canadian company had been a key foreign operator in the island’s tourism industry, with properties operated under brands such as Royalton International, Blue Diamond Resorts Cuba, Blue Diamond Cuba, Memories, Starfish, Mystique, and Resonancel.
Iberostar Group has also cut ties with the country’s military-linked Grupo de Turismo Gaviota, although the Spanish multinational isn’t leaving Cuba entirely. According to the Havana Times, the company will continue to operate properties owned by Cubanacan and Gran Caribe, state entities linked to non-military components of the communist dictatorship.
The Aston hotel brand in Cuba, operated by Jakarta-based Archipelago International, has also pulled out of the island.
