The president of the Yucatan Tourism Business Council (Cetur), Jorge Carrillo Sáenz, confirmed the low influx of tourists in this summer vacation period mainly due to the lack of a promotional campaign aimed at national tourism that comes by road.
Interviewed about this situation, Carrillo Sáenz confirmed that hotel occupancy in July 2023 was the same as that of the same month in 2022, in Mérida it had a low growth of 2% and confirmed that the general data reports a drop of 6% to 7% in hotels outside state.
“It was due to the lack of tourism promotion. No campaign was focused on national tourism from the center of the country,” he stated when commenting on this negative panorama of tourism. “We know that the normal behavior of the months of July and August has changed. Before, the summer holidays were complete for two months, now, the holidays begin on July 10, when the students leave classes, and end on August 10, always for the same reason. Families that have children in schools finish their vacations on average on August 10.”
The president of Cetur insisted that the behavior of national tourists who come by road is a tradition on every summer vacation, so a strong campaign should have been launched to encourage them, but it was not done.
Tourist destinations should have been promoted, but quite apart from this lack of tourism promotion, he said that it is worth going back to something fundamental to have real data on tourism that comes to Yucatan.
He recalled that he has unsuccessfully requested that the official agencies that are related to the tourism industry document the flow of passengers arriving through the Mérida airport and at the bus terminals that have routes to tourist destinations in Yucatán so that there is real data on the tourism.
“The hotel occupancy data is the only one we take into account when talking about tourism, but the Mérida airport is the generator of a significant flow of visitors and could provide statistics to guide promotional campaigns,” he said. “I have always said and believed that a passenger who arrives at the Mérida airport may come for tourism purposes, may be a passenger who lives in Mérida or who comes for work reasons. That cannot be counted as a tourist if you use the airport for work or residence issues.
“I think that in the tourism sector you have to look beyond statistical issues, you must obtain this real information about who is a tourist and leaves an economic spill on tours, hiring a hotel room and for consumption,” he said. “You have to know where the tourist comes from and if they really come for that purpose or for another reason.”
Carrillo Sáenz said they only talk about what happens in hotels, but tourism is not limited to this sector. The tourism industry is much broader than what happens in hotels and it is where efforts should be focused to find out what is happening in the entire sector.
TYT Newsroom
