There is concern on the tourism sector in Quintana Roo. Issues such as sargasso, insecurity and lack of promotion have not been properly addressed by president López Obrador.
RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO. – The president of the Association of Hotels of the Riviera Maya, Conrad Bergwerf, said that the Mexican Caribbean faces a fall of 6 to 10% in hotel occupancy and hotel rates, even in Cancun, the drop on hotel prices now reaches 15 -20% in order to obtain more tourist occupation.
“The sargassum is hitting us very hard, almost 300% more in volume in relation to last year, that affects the guest experience; apart from that, we do not see a clear definition regarding promotion with the Tourism Promotion Council of Quintana Roo; Although we have requested the action plan for this year, we have not seen anything, we have not had an answer”, he explained.
Conrad Bergwerf at GM Paradisus-Playa del Carmen Q. Roo
The hotel sector of the Riviera Maya, which has around 70,000 rooms, asked the Federal Government to “put things in order” regarding tourism promotion abroad, and noted that it should avoid situations like Mexico in the Anato Tourist Showcase, the most important fair in the tourism sector that took place in Colombia. In such event everything went wrong, there was a huge disorder and the people from the new government had no idea how to conduct the events.
Conrad Bergwerf argued that the government needs to keep things in order. “If there is no Promotion Council then an entity has to be established to do it… If not, this lack of promotion will be a disaster and we do not want that to happen. We have fought many years, invested millions of dollars to position the destination, into what it is today and we cannot allow it to be lost due to the disorganization that prevails at the moment,” he expressed. Conrad Bergwerf also said that there is concern on the tourism sector due to the paralysis to address issues such as sargasso, the insecurity and how to recover the levels of arrival of markets such as the United States and Canada. “There is concern because all the attention is focused on the Mayan Train issue, but not on the promotion of Mexican destinations,” he concluded.
The National Tourism Business Council and other entities in the business and commercial sector, have criticized the null mention of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to the promotion and advertising of the country as a destination during the launch of his tourism strategy from 2019-2024, however, a video was made exalting his presidency, and his person. This video was considered, by many as “indoctrination” instead of promotion.
Apenas se presentó por @lopezobrador_ y @TorrucoTurismo la Estrategia Nacional de Turismo. El video oficial relativo de @SECTUR_mx, por su carga ideológica, parece producido para un partido político. ¿Y donde quedó la estrategia turística? Va un fragmento del 40% del tiempo total pic.twitter.com/T8EF3JcocC
— Gustavo de Hoyos W (@gdehoyoswalther) 26 de febrero de 2019
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