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Since December, planes at the Cancun airport have taken off and landed every five minutes, writes DW.com. On the Caribbean coast, it’s the Christmas season itself, and Germany’s Lufthansa added this Mexico vacation destination to its itineraries in October, despite COVID-19.
Tourists from Europe and North America flock to the beaches, lining up to see the majestic Mayan pyramids. Many people from Lithuania are also on vacation here. Hotel and restaurant owners are delighted, and the lure of a sunny beach seems strong enough to overshadow awareness of crowded intensive care units and the growing number of infected people. In Mexico, 176,000 have died from COVID-19. people – and the country is third in the world in absolute terms. More deaths from COVID-19 were recorded only in the US and Brazil.
At the same time, however, preliminary statistics from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) show that Mexico was the most popular tourist destination in Latin America in 2020 and the third most popular in the world.
Open walls
There are many reasons why Mexico has received so many visitors. First of all, Mexico has never closed its borders and remains one of the few countries in the world that does not even require a negative PCR test upon arrival. President Andrés Manuel López has increasingly spoken out against the quarantine, reiterating the importance of the economy. Another reason is that migrants from Mexico returned to visit their families’ homelands at Christmas.
Scanpix / AP photo / Tourists in Mexico during the pandemic
However, UNWTO statistics do not necessarily reflect the whole picture. Michael Dalle, one of the founders of 10Gates Matrix Inc., a Canadian company specializing in travel data, said that the statistics included the pre-pandemic months of January to March 2020, which is the peak of the Christmas season in Mexico.
High hygiene standards
Although Mexico has risen in the UNWTO statistics, the decrease in tourist flows in the country has still been felt. According to the statistical institute Inegi, Mexico received 48 percent last year. fewer visitors and 55 percent. lower income in foreign currency than in 2019.
The fact that the sector has survived is impressive. In contrast, in Germany, for example, neither Mexican airlines nor tour operators received subsidies. What’s more, the Mexican government shut down the national tourism marketing agency shortly after the pandemic began, saving money.
Hal explains that businesses here have been rescued by the regional government and tourism associations. As early as 2020. In the summer, hotels on the Caribbean coast had certified hygiene measures that were not available even in countries like Canada. This has given travelers the confidence that a vacation in Mexico can be safe. Masks are also a must in Kintana Roo, where Cancun is located.
Scanpix / AP photo / Tourists in Mexico during the pandemic
However, many doctors see that opening in the country as risky and openly blame that tourism has caused an increase in infections in the favorite places of tourists. Official statistics show that the number of new cases increased in February, but was still lower than in the areas with the highest incidence, in Mexico City and the central part of the country.
A nudist paradise is happy and scared
This year on the wave and Zipolite – The stretch of beach on the Pacific coast, famous for its nude beaches, writes The Daily Beast.
Even in the first 2021. In the 1930s, thousands of tourists (mostly from the United States and Canada) flocked here in search of escape from the strict quarantines in force in their countries.
Zumapress / Photo by Scanpix / Tourists in Mexico during the pandemic
Although the annual nude festival has been canceled, travelers still flock here to enjoy the beautiful beaches, open restaurants, and lively nightlife. This is no longer found in most of our countries.
Jane Cusak, 40, of Toronto, Canada, openly told The Daily Beast that she wasn’t even surprised by the restrictions. “I was going to go to Tulum, but I read that now it is full of tourists, so I chose Zipolite, I wanted to escape the city, enjoy the quiet unpaved beach. I was very pleasantly surprised by the pandemic ship rules here, “he said. He only needed to wear a mask during the trip and would have to take a COVID-19 test before returning home.
Entrepreneurs accept that tourists embrace dual sentiments. Many of them were rescued by travelers from bankruptcies, but at the same time they posed a risk of infection. Fernando Coronado, owner of the Hotel Noga, said he had decided to accept travelers because he would not have survived otherwise.
The good news is that business has stalled. Bad: Both he and his wife were infected with COVID-19. It is true that he got sick easily, so now he continues to work. After all, they probably won’t get infected a second time.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Tourists in Mexico during the pandemic
In the state of Oaxaca, where ZipoliteAt the end of January, the number of infected people was record: 22 thousand were registered per day. cases.
John M. Williams of Texas, who retired 10 years ago to move to Zipolite, January was hell in paradise.
“I have diabetes, I am 68 years old. I am very concerned about my health because no tourist wears a mask. “They are very disrespectful,” he told The Daily Beast.
He admitted that without the tourists the place would not survive, but added: “I live here and they don’t. They can go and I will continue anxious. “
Growing optimism
Active local tourism also contributed greatly to the survival of the travel sector; after all, there are up to 127 million people living in Mexico. people. Local tourists have helped mitigate the blow caused by the decline in international traffic, writes DW.
Meinolf Coessmeier runs Mexico Adventures in Cuernavaca, which organizes motorcycle tours for Mexicans in Europe. Last year, his business survived when he began offering tours in Mexico. Expect construction to return to old ways in 2022.
“There is a lot of interest in vacationing in nature,” he told DW. Additionally, motorcycle manufacturers around the world in 2020 enjoyed record sales and buyers now just wait for the opportunity to test their purchases on the go.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Tourists in Mexico during the pandemic
While surveys show that people are very eager to travel and hope to be able to do so in the next 6 months after receiving vaccinations, the tourism sector is not expected to recover quickly. The parties are re-announcing new travel requirements, imposing stricter conditions on new strains of COVID-19 and introducing stricter quarantines. In response, Mexican airports began offering PCR testing capabilities, and some hotels have even accepted it.
Halle believes that the pandemic is an opportunity for Mexico to begin offering more sustainable tourism. There will be no massive groups of travelers and city trips in the near future, so countries like Mexico, which boasts natural beauty, could gain a lot in the world after the coronavirus.
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