Blue Diamond Resorts to exit Cuba

This story was updated on Sunday, May 31 at 12:36 p.m. EST.

Canada’s Blue Diamond Resorts, a major foreign player in Cuba’s tourism industry for the past decade, has reportedly announced the immediate termination of its operations on the island, according to a statement issued by tour wholesaler Sudameria Travel.

The update, posted Saturday (May 30), attributes the decision to "the current conditions of the Cuban tourist market and the ongoing operational limitations affecting the destination, including logistical, infrastructure, and supply challenges."

“As of this date [May 30], future reservations, inquiries, and coordination will be handled directly by the respective hotel owners and/or the corresponding local operating entities,” the notice reads.

The measure encompasses all of Blue Diamond’s brands on the island: Blue Diamond Resorts Cuba, Blue Diamond Cuba, Royalton, Memories, Starfish, Mystique, and Resonance.

According to local media reports, the properties will now be administered by Gaviota, a company that forms part of Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the Cuban military conglomerate controlled by the armed forces.

Cuban news outlet 14ymedio reports that it confirmed this by contacting several Havana hotels previously managed by Blue Diamond under various names: the Royalton Habana Paseo del Prado, the Inglaterra, and the Regis Mystique.

Blue Diamond Resorts, which rebranded and consolidated its portfolio under its flagship name Royalton Hotels & Resorts last year, has not publicly confirmed the decision nor issued an official statement. PAX has contacted the company for comment.

Other sources have since confirmed the news, however.

Among them, Gwendoline Duval, president of Duval Communication – the agency that represented Blue Diamond Resorts Cuba in Quebec – shared the development in an email to partners over the weekend.

In her note, Duval writes that she first learned about Blue Diamond Resorts’ withdrawal from Cuba on Friday afternoon (May 29).

“According to information provided by Blue Diamond Resorts, this decision marks the company’s withdrawal from its operations in Cuba,” reads the email, which is written in French. “This announcement concerns Blue Diamond Resorts’ Cuban operations only and does not affect the group’s activities in the other destinations where it operates.”

Since entering the Cuban market in 2011, the company has grown to operate 62 hotels with more than 12,900 rooms across key destinations including Varadero, Havana, Cayo Coco, Cayo Santa María, Cayo Largo del Sur, Cayo Cruz, Trinidad, and Camagüey, making it one of the island’s leading foreign hotel operators.

The update comes as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on foreign businesses operating in Cuba.

On May 7, the U.S. State Department, following a push by Secretary Marco Rubio, officially added GAESA – the military-controlled conglomerate that dominates Cuba’s tourism sector through its Gaviota subsidiary – to its sanctions list.

As reported by CiberCuba, the sanctions give foreign companies and financial institutions until June 5, 2026, to terminate all business and operational relationships with GAESA and its subsidiaries—Gaviota, Gran Caribe, Cubanacán, and Islazul—or face the risk of secondary sanctions.

Pressing pause

Canada’s Sunwing Vacations Group – and other companies, such as Air Canada and Air Transat – have temporarily suspended flights and vacation packages to Cuba.

On April 15, following fuel shortages in Cuba and the cancellation of all flights from Canada, Sunwing, under the WestJet Group, announced the suspension of all its Cuba vacation packages for the summer 2026 season. The measure affected operations from all Canadian airports to Varadero and Cayo Coco between June 20 and October 9.

The Government of Canada is currently warning citizens against all non-essential travel to Cuba, pointing to deepening shortages of fuel, electricity, food, water, and medicine.

Still, some tour operators, such as Enjoy Travel Group and Hola Sun Holidays, have continued to promote the destination. 

Hola Sun’s main connections to Cuba currently include flights via the United States (American Airlines, Southwest, and Delta Air Lines), Mexico City and Cancun (Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobus, and Magnicharter) and Panama (Copa Airlines).

Canada is Cuba’s largest tourism market. According to Cuban statistics, roughly 754,000 Canadians visited the island in 2025, representing a 12.4 per cent decrease from the previous year.

The downturn has intensified in 2026, with international arrivals dropping 55.8 per cent between January and April compared with the same period in 2025.

Ongoing power shortages, frequent blackouts, supply constraints, and reduced flight connectivity have prompted many hotel operators to either shut down properties or consolidate guests into a smaller number of hotels.

Meliá scales down

Blue Diamond Resorts isn’t the only hotelier to adjust its operations in Cuba.

Meliá Hotels International, sharing its Q1 results earlier this month, concluded the first quarter of 2026 with only half of its hotel capacity operational on the island.

The Spanish hotel operator, which manages 34 properties comprising more than 5,000 rooms across Cuba, stated in its report that the current conditions have resulted in a dramatic decline in its operations on the island.

The company attributed the collapse to the energy crisis triggered by sanctions brought on by the United States.

In its report, Meliá notes that "this situation has created an unexpected difficulty in obtaining fuel which, along with the imposition of a strict trade blockade, has greatly affected the tourism market," and that "the lack of aviation fuel led to the cancellation of numerous direct flights to the country, including from its main source market, Canada."

This is a developing story. 

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