In the summer, due to the mismanagement of sargassum, there was great concern in Playa del Carmen: hotels were only 25% occupied.
Liliana Bravo Mena, outgoing president of the Mexican Association of Businesswomen (AMEXME), noted that this year has been very difficult for Playa del Carmen, with some hotels having less than 25% occupancy during the summer. She blames this on the lack of comprehensive management of sargassum, despite years of experiencing this natural phenomenon.
“It has been a very difficult year; the numbers have not been kind to us, neither in the state nor in the municipality. We had a very, very low summer; some hotels haven’t even reached 20% or 30% occupancy. We’re talking about averages of 60% and 70% in the summer, and the low season is already fully felt, although there are events, but they are very local. So, we need greater tourism promotion abroad and solving our underlying problems so that our tourism can grow again, because that’s where we all live,” Bravo Mena said.
“We had an atypical, very complicated sargassum season, and we still aren’t seeing any concrete results. I’m not saying that a lot of work isn’t being done by the federal, state, municipal, and civil society organizations, but I do think we’re not seeing tangible results. This season saw a lot of sargassum, it keeps coming, and there’s talk that it won’t stop, and this is affecting the destination’s image compared to other sun-and-beach destinations. After so many years of this natural phenomenon, we still don’t have a comprehensive management program,” declared Bravo Mena.
The summer season didn’t bring the expected relief to small hotels in downtown Playa del Carmen, with a week in which they closed with an average hotel occupancy of 37 percent, an alarming figure for the sector. (Playa del Carmen: sharp drop in occupancy of downtown hotels).
This was announced at the time by Offner Arjona, president of the destination’s Small Hotels Association, who described the situation as a “persistent bad streak” that is hitting business owners in the sector hard.
Source: REPORTUR
