STORY: Hotels, restaurants, museums and once-lively city streets in Cuba's Havana are now largely empty of foreign visitors.

Hit by shortages, blackouts, and a deep economic crisis, the country's tourism industry has never really recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with visitor numbers struggling to reach even half of their 4.75 million peak in 2018.

And the situation has gotten much worse this year.

The U.S. has hinted at possible military action against Cuba and imposed new sanctions on the island's communist-run government.

As Washington has threatened to penalize foreigners who do business with sanctioned individuals, most travel firms have fled or reduced their activities on the island.

Adianet Labrada is a Cuba tour agency representative: 

"Tourism in Cuba has always been one of the sectors that has contributed the most to the Cuban economy, and it is one of the sectors most affected by the sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on Cuba."

Recent weeks have seen the two largest foreign hotel chains operating in Cuba announce they will cut back operations there, with another foreign hotel group pulling out entirely.

Several international airlines have also suspended flights to the island, citing the unreliability of jet fuel supplies.

As of last week, Visa and Mastercard have also suspended operations in Cuba.

According to Cuba's national statistics agency, there were less than 330,000 international arrivals in the first months of this year, that was down by more than half compared with the same period last year.

Locals in Havana told Reuters that they were feeling the pinch.

A cafe manager said they have almost no tourism due to the lack of jet fuel and because cruise ships haven't entered Cuba in quite some time.

The Trump administration blames Cuba's government for the country's economic problems, calling it corrupt and incompetent.

U.S. officials say strong sanctions are needed to force change.

Cuba says decades of U.S. sanctions are the root cause of its economic woes.