The low season is leading to temporary room closures in the Mexican Caribbean. In Cancún alone, 3,109 rooms have been reported closed for renovations.
Added to this are another 296 in the city’s mainland, another 143 in Puerto Morelos, and another 424 on the mainland of Isla Mujeres.
That means 3,972 rooms have now been closed for renovations during the low season of the year.
In a previous interview, Bernardo Cueto Riestra, Secretary of Tourism for Quintana Roo, had already anticipated that many hotels would take advantage of the current season to remodel their facilities ahead of the peak winter season, as low occupancy allows certain areas of the hotels to be closed for renovations.
What is unknown at this time is how many workers are affected by this temporary room closure.
In his most recent statement on the matter, Rodrigo de la Peña, head of the AHCPMIM (National Health and Social Security Administration), denied that the organization he chairs is promoting labor policies such as “solidarity” breaks or forced unpaid vacations, although he acknowledged that it is up to each hotel individually to decide how to manage its workforce during the more than two months of the lowest season of the year.
At least the statistical report does reflect a much more complicated low season than the previous year.
During the National Holiday, Cancún’s hotel zone reported 59.4% occupancy; the city center stood at 39.5%; Puerto Morelos at 44.6%; and the mainland of Isla Mujeres at 60.1%.
The average occupancy rate between September 1 and 16 shows that Cancún’s hotel zone is at least two percentage points below the same period last year, while hotels in the city’s mainland are 10 percentage points away from 2024. Puerto Morelos is also down four percentage points, while the mainland area of Isla Mujeres is also down nearly three percentage points.
This coincides with Cancún International Airport recording its two worst days during the national holiday weekend; the first on September 16 with 347 operations, and the following day it fell further to 341.
Source: eleconomista
