Restaurant sales have dropped by around 70% compared to the tourist boom years of 2022 and 2023. This situation has led to a reduction in jobs of up to 50%, says Juan Pablo Correa Ceballos, president of the Valladolid Yucatán Restaurant Association (Arvay).
Carlos Guillermo Aguirre Aguilar, president of the Valladolid Restaurant and Gastronomic Services Association (Reserva), said in recent days that due to an oversupply in the restaurant industry, sales are low, and the arrival of tourism has decreased considerably.
Correa Ceballos said that tourism is no longer arriving as it has in the last three years, with the exception of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The low flow of tourism is due to different factors, including the lack of interest of the 4T government to promote Mexico in other countries as a tourist destination, since it even closed all the promotion offices that Mexico had around the world.
Pandemic, hard blow to tourism in Valladolid
The restaurant leader recalled that this city began its tourist boom since 2012, after receiving the designation of Magical Town, and the growth was gradual, until 2019, when several foreign investments started to arrive.
Then the pandemic came that stopped all growth, but in 2021 the tourist boom began again, when thousands of people “were crazy” to go on vacation and that was when a strong tourist boom was observed, he continued.
Although the arrival of tourists was real, it could also be considered that it was a mirage, since it was not known precisely what would happen years later with the drop in the arrival of visitors.
He stated that 70% of tourists are European, the rest are Americans, but now there are other countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, among others, that are promoting their destinations and Europeans take advantage of it.
Correa Ceballos considered that from 2019 to date, the flow of tourism in the city and in the region has dropped by 50%, but sales have dropped much more.
He estimated that the drop in sales has been a little more than 70% and gave as an example that a few years ago a restaurateur sold around $15,000 per day, now it barely reaches about $4,000.
This situation has led to the dismissal of staff, or failing that, working fewer days a week: if before they required four waiters, now only two are needed, or failing that, they work only on days when it is considered that there would be visitors.
To compensate for the low flow: he said that each entrepreneur in the sector independently does what he can to promote his business, and in the case of Arvay, he announced some projects to attract tourism at least for the next year, such as an international modeling festival and an international digital promotion that will be done from Cancun, Quintana Roo, whose inauguration will take place on August 30.
In that place they will be provided with a space to be able to promote this city and all the attractions it has, however he considered that more products are needed and tourist services need to be improved.
