Last Friday (17), Air China resumed flights between Beijing and Havana, with the first aircraft arriving in the Cuban capital with 116 passengers. The flights resumed after several years of interruption following the Covid-19 crisis.
With a stopover in Madrid and two flights a week, the Cuban authorities and the Asian giant company hope to increase the weekly average of flights in the short term to increase exchanges and communication between China, Latin America and the Caribbean.
At the beginning of May, Cuban Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García announced that the island would not require a visa for Chinese citizens with ordinary passports wishing to visit the Caribbean country.
Since then, according to the official Chinese newspaper Global Times, Internet searches about trips from China to Cuba have “skyrocketed,” becoming one of the main trends on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo.
The Prime Minister of Cuba, Manuel Marrero, showed up at Havana's international airport to welcome the first flight. After landing, the minister stated that the reestablishment of the flights was “a dream come true” and that “it's here to stay."
Referring to the difficult economic situation the country is going through, Marrero said he was grateful for “all of China's cooperation at this time." He added that the reestablishment of flights between Beijing and Havana “is not an isolated action,” but “will favor government and tourist exchanges.”
Noting the strategic importance for Cuba of flights with China, the prime minister said the Cuban government is focused on ensuring that “this visa exemption measure produces results and facilitates exchanges.” He also announced that Cuba's next International Tourism Fair will focus on China.
The win-win principle
In an interview with Brasil de Fato, researcher Eduardo Regalado Florido, coordinator of the Asia and Oceania team at the Cuban International Policy Research Center (CIPI, in Spanish), noted that this measure has “multiple interpretations” and stressed that it is about “deepening relations between the two countries."
“It is a way of translating the political relations the two countries have into more concrete results in terms of support and collaboration under the ‘win-win’ principle. It also supports Cuba's independence amid a scenario in which the strengthening of the US blockade has caused great damage to the island’s economy,” he comments.
The researcher points out that the resumption of flights is taking place in a context in which Chinese investment in Cuba “is not going through its best moment”, since “the shortage of foreign currency that Cuba is going through has damaged some Chinese investments on the island." However, he stated that “there is a total willingness on both sides to resolve this situation."
The increase in tourism in Cuba is one of the main factors that could help the island earn foreign currency in the medium and short term, which may improve China's investment conditions in Cuba.
Air China began operations in the Caribbean country in 2015. According to official statistics, in 2019, China ranked 13th among the countries that visited Cuba the most. In recent years, the trend of tourist travel from China to the island has been growing, with an average increase of 23% per year.
“The arrival of Chinese tourism poses a challenge to Cuba's infrastructure and services. But the Chinese government has also expressed its intention to help with all elements that contribute to the development of tourism between the two countries,” explains Regalado Florido.
Damage to tourism
As in the rest of the Caribbean countries, tourism is one of Cuba's main economic activities and an important source of foreign currency. Therefore, it’s one of the main economic activities Washington tries to stifle with its blockade policy.
In January 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, the United States included Cuba on its list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” The measure generates severe economic and political sanctions that deliberately seek to stifle the economies of these countries as a way of “fighting terrorism.”
Since then, the US State Department has denied access to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) to 300,000 European citizens who have visited Cuba. The cancellation of ESTA means that these citizens have to go through a more expensive and time-consuming process – which can take up to years – to apply for a traditional visa to enter the US.
In the same vein, at the end of April, the Argentinian far-right government of Javier Milei decided not to sell fuel to the Cubana de Aviación airline, forcing the Cuban company to suspend its flights to Buenos Aires. According to the company, the damage was caused “by invoking the provisions of the US blockade measures against Cuba.”
The Argentinian government's decision was taken after Cubana de Aviación resumed direct flights between Argentina and Cuba in May 2023, which had been suspended due to the pandemic. The resumption of these flights had a positive impact on the number of visits to the Caribbean country. During the period from January to March this year, a vacation period in Argentina, the number of Argentinians who traveled to Cuba increased by 44% compared to the same period last year.
A greater flow of Chinese tourists to Cuba could help alleviate the tourism deficit the Caribbean country has been facing amid the unilateral US economic blockade.
Cuba's tourism minister visited China on May 26 to take part in an international travel fair in Shanghai. During this trip, the two countries sought to establish exchanges in the tourism and culture sectors.
Edited by: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
