Quintana Roo’s governor calls for economic aid to shore up tourism

In the face of the current crisis tourism is going through in the northern state of Quintana Roo in the Mexican Caribbean –where hotel occupancy rate has hit a record low 38 percent- the state government has been granted a one-million-dollar bailout package by the Federation’s Tourism Promotion Council, Governor Joaquin Hendricks Diaz said in Chetumal.

Mr. Hendricks recognized hotel occupancy rate has hit bedrock these days, a situation seen by hotelkeepers and other service providers here as a sign of “alarm and extreme emergency.”

The state administration will also bank on some $130 million for tourism promotion overseas. A raffle entitled “Visit Cancun And Become A Millionaire,” with lavish cash prizes for travelers landing on that tourist circuit, will take place from now on until December 26, Mr. Hendricks added.

“Even among airlines,” he went on to say, “we’ll promote discount trips and begin similar activities in the U.S., Germany, France, England, Spain and other nations to prevent tourism from falling into the state of alarm of recent days.”

Sigfrido Paz Paredes, a consultant for the Hotel Association, said in a meeting in Cancun with tourist entrepreneurs that 10 percent of all flights worldwide were called off in recent months as a result of the crisis triggered by the terrorist attacks in the United States.

“This had a huge impact on all tourist destinations, so now the pie has shrunk and our slice is thinner,” Mr. Paredes said. “That leads us to finding new mechanisms to lure a thicker tourist inflow.”

In Mr. Paredes’ opinion, tourism is to bounce back by means of competitiveness rather than lowering fares.