The Yucatan hotel sector is already making provisions to face what would be the worst drop in state hotel occupation due to the suspension of tourist activities, as a consequence of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.
Recently the Tianguis Turístico de México was canceled, which should have started on Sunday the 22nd and ended on Wednesday the 25th in Mérida; and the events of the spring equinox in the archaeological zones of Chichén Itzá and Dzibilchaltún.
The cancellation of these and other events are factors that would cause an occupancy of just 6% to 8% in hotels across Mérida and the rest of the state.
The president of the Hotel Association, Héctor Navarrete Medina, and his board of directors delivered a request to the state government, specifically to the General Secretaries of Government, Tourism and Health Promotion, as well as to the Federation.
The Hotel Association is asking for the suspension pf the collection of the following taxes, during the first two or three months of the crisis provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic:
The hotel tax, which is 5% due to the authorized increase this year.
The payroll tax (2.5% for natural or legal person and 4% to government agencies).
“Back in 2009, during the influenza crisis, there were tax incentives, credits for small and medium-sized companies and the federal government paid the payroll for two months to keep the plant productive,” recalled the businessman.
“The fall in hotel occupancy is difficult to predict exactly because such a situation has never occurred,” Héctor Navarrete Medina concluded.
The Yucatan TimesNewroom