On the eve of Lent, tension persists in Progreso’s traditional malecon, the port’s busiest spot, as several tourists have begun to complain about scams and harassment by workers on this boulevard, who have already accumulated several embarrassing events that have placed the municipality in the “eye of the hurricane”.
In a survey conducted within the sand zone of this site, national tourists reported that the problem that has the most repercussions is that of prices, as constant visitors to Progreso assure that the bills vary although it is always customary to ask for the same thing.
“There are no really established prices, regularly we always went to the same place to rent palapas to order a portion of fish and drinks, but, when we noticed in three weekends that the bills were different, always more expensive, we started to buy lunch in nearby fishmongers and to buy soft drinks in self-service stores, because we do not trust the places to rent palapas”, said Fernando Chuc, who regularly chooses Sunday as his favorite day to go to the beach with four members of his family.
Just a couple of weeks ago it was specified that there have also been several complaints from diners who receive basa fillet when they ask for better quality fish, so it was also expressed that relevant authorities conduct investigations in this point of the port.
“Nothing bad has ever happened to us, but honestly we do prefer to bring our consumption from home, because the port no longer has the same prestige as before. It has declined a lot and there is no guarantee for the tourist. It is a pity that several of these establishments are losing clients when there are places that do work honestly,” said Marisela Nava, also a visitor to the Yucatan capital.
Authorities such as Manuel Contreras Alcalá, who represents the National Chamber of Commerce in the port, said in a past interview that any situation in which he was not satisfied should be reported to organizations such as Profeco.
Among the most talked-about cases is the fight that took place during the first week of December last year, when after finding insects in a plate of spaghetti with shrimp, a family refused to pay for its consumption; this unleashed the wrath of the commercial personnel and the intervention of the State and Municipal Police was requested.
International tourists have not remained silent either, since just last month the case of a user named Patty A. M. was reported, who made known in a public account that during her visit to the port she suffered a scam when she bought jewelry with supposed gold, being surprising the consultation she made in her country about the product, since it turned out to be only “fantasy“.
So far, it is not known if the Tourism Department, which in previous administrations used to convene meetings and carry out the pertinent investigations, has started to analyze this type of cases.
As previously mentioned, it is expected that for the long week vacations the number of visitors will exceed one million and more than 420 million pesos will be obtained for local commerce, which is what was produced for the Carnival days.
TYT Newsroom
