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When President Obama descended from Air Force One on Cuban land in 2016, he represented among approximately four million tourists to the island that year.

A record high back then, Cuba's tourism figures continued to grow until a peak level of almost 5 million people by 2018.

From that point, however, the decline in the island's travel industry has been precipitous.

Hit hard by the twin effects of the COVID-19 crisis and harsher travel restrictions imposed by the previous US government, last year was among Cuba's poorest for the industry in recent decades.

With the island's longstanding sectors – such as sugar cane, cigars and minerals – in the doldrums, the travel sector serves as Cuba's primary means of foreign currency income after remittances.

Fewer tourists, therefore, means less money in the state coffers to allocate in the island's crumbling power grid, or to spend on essential food supplies and medications.

Traditional allies – Venezuela and Russia – are facing significant economic challenges of their own, and while Beijing has funded some solar power projects, Beijing is preoccupied with bigger geopolitical issues.

Today, Cuba faces its most severe financial downturn after the Cold War.

"Conceptually, tourism remains the country's economic locomotive," explains the Cuban tourism minister, Juan Carlos García Granda.

In Havana, journalists asks the official in charge of that financial engine about the sector's present condition:

"Well, I'm no physician," the minister remarks dryly, "however, I assure you that the island's travel sector is alive and kicking."

He claims that the Cuban government has halted the slide seen in the current year, and that the next quarter of this year will show improved statistics.

"We encounter obstacles that our competitors face," the official continues.

"The severity and the pressure from an financial conflict launched by the globe's main source of tourists, the United States, has prevented Cuban tourism from returning to pre-pandemic numbers."

Referring to the six decades-long American trade restrictions on the island, the minister states actions implemented by Washington from the former president's initial administration in office in that year were intentionally crafted to hurt Cuba's tourist trade.

"In Trump's first term, they took 263 steps [against Cuba], the majority aimed at destroying Cuban tourism."

In particular, he points to a prohibition on US cruise ship operators from arriving in the island's harbors.

"Without that, we might have welcomed an additional one-million annual visitors," García Granda estimates.

A stricter measure occurred in early 2021 as the United States once more included Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (the list). The current US leader took the nation off the list in January of this year, but Trump to add it again shortly after as he began his new administration.

This label has a knock-on effect: UK and some EU travelers who have visited the island after that date are no longer qualify for an travel authorization (the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) to visit the US.

Given the complications for such visitors – of finding themselves plunged into a longer, more difficult US visa process – many potential UK visitors have been put off from visiting Cuba entirely.

"Thousands of UK visitors must reach Cuba via Madrid, via Paris, others even via Toronto. Yet not through the Florida city. Explain to me the reason a British citizen, entirely independent, can't travel to Cuba via Miami?" the minister questions pointedly.

Yet some the decisions impacting the health of the travel sector have been taken in Washington. During the period of improved relations, the Cuban government launched an ambitious hotel-building programme in Havana and the main beach resort, the resort area.

In the capital alone, at least half a dozen new luxury hotels have been erected to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The newest, known locally as the K Tower, stands as the highest structure on the nation, its imposing frame towering over the Vedado area of the Cuban capital.

"We have many alternative accommodations in Havana and it doesn't fit in with its environment," comments university student Danais, talking in the square opposite. "I'd have used the money for other ends, for things we really need like addressing the blackouts."

"It ignores its city setting," agrees Sabrina, who is studying architecture. "From a design perspective, I see several favorable and unfavorable aspects, and it is definitely one of the most notable structures in the nation.

"However it didn't need to be so luxurious and lavish, particularly with numerous hotels in the city remaining vacant."

I put those points to the tourism minister, saying the majority of locals do not see the tower as a monument to the country's creativity and innovation, but rather as a symbol of poor central planning and the authorities' inability to address the urgent requirements of its people.

The minister acknowledges that the hotel has its critics, but contends that plenty of Cubans, especially those who work there, appreciate the new addition to the city's landscape.

Nevertheless, Cuba's hotel construction push prompts a key issue over whether Cuba was misled by the previous US government – promised a future of warmer political ties and a steady flow of US visitors which failed to occur.

Was the Cuban government at fault for not preparing for shifting political winds, or are US leaders at fault for enacting a foreign policy which proved not strong enough or lasting to endure from a presidency to the next?

As expected, the official insists that the island's tourism strategy was not predicated on poor planning.

"A gap" in accommodation supply in Cuba was revealed "during the Obama era, which demonstrated the need for more lodging in Havana," he argues. Additionally, he notes, the expenses have not solely been borne by the Cuban state.

"More than 70% of the island's travel sector relies on