Should you stay or should you go? Canadians reconsider Cuba travel plans after advisory

Ask the travellers who keep going year after year, and they'll likely tell you the same thing: there's just something about Cuba.

The dazzling beaches. The sense of safety. The warmth — not just the climate, but the people.

"You fall in love," said Monique Belliveau, 53, of Winnipeg. "It's not a rich country by any means, but you fall in love."

Belliveau estimates she's been to the Caribbean island about 80 times over the past 20 years. First, as a repeat visitor to Varadero with her family. Then, a solo trip following her divorce. Now, she travels back to Cuba four or five times each year with her Cuban husband and their son.

They have a house in Holguín, close to her husband's extended family. On their most recent visit in January, they all stayed at a resort in Guardalavaca for four weeks.

"There were no shortages, there were no power outages, there were no issues," Belliveau told CBC News from Winnipeg.

"This travel advisory ... all Canada has done is scare everyone."

The federal government raised its advisory level for travel to Cuba on Tuesday, warning Canadians that worsening shortages of electricity, fuel and basic necessities including food, water and medicine could also affect resorts.

"Exercise a high degree of caution in Cuba," the advisory says.

Cuba is hit by widespread outages every day, blamed on fuel shortages and crumbling infrastructure. The blackouts have deepened an economic crisis already worsened by a slump in tourism, stepped-up U.S. sanctions and a failed internal financial reform to unify the currency, according to the Associated Press.

Since the federal government's new warning, CBC News has heard from dozens of travellers who say they've either cancelled their trips, are trying to cancel without success or are still going with the understanding that this year's trip could be challenging.

But some, like Belliveau, think the advisory is "nonsense" and will only further hurt Cubans by harming their struggling tourism industry. Overall, the number of visitors to Cuba has dropped by nearly 70 per cent since 2018, according to the Associated Press.

"Cancelling your trip to Cuba right now is the worst thing you can do because they need us more than ever," Belliveau said.

For decades, tourism generated up to $3 billion US a year for Cuba. And Canadians have historically been the nation's most frequent visitors. But data shows this is shifting.