Mexico sees holiday bump in tourism amid pandemic surge

Описание: (12 Jan 2021) Tens of thousands of American tourists descended on Mexico's glittering Caribbean beaches for the holiday season.
The state of Quintana Roo, the country's tourism crown jewel, home to Cancun, the Riviera Maya and Tulum, welcomed 961,000 tourists between Christmas and the beginning of January — nearly half of them from the U.S. — down only 25% from the previous year.  
"We'd heard that everybody was good about it down here about being safe with everything, and so we trusted it and went for it; it's been great so far," said Ted Peterson, a tourist from Lewiston, Idaho:, who was visiting Cancun with his family.
Conern is now spreading that the winter holiday success could be fleeting because it came as COVID-19 infections in both Mexico and the United States, the main source of the foreign tourists, were reaching new heights — and as a new, more easily spread variant was beginning to emerge in the U.S.
If a sharp rise in infections forces a new shutdown of the tourism sector, the effects would be devastating.  
Tourism accounts for 87% of Quintana Roo's gross domestic product, said state's Secretary of Tourism, Marisol Vanegas Pérez. The state has lost some 90,000 tourism jobs — only 10,000 of which have come back — and countless others that depend on tourism.  
Flights from the U.S. dried up last spring as the pandemic took hold but have risen steadily since then.
In December, Quintana Roo was averaging 460 air arrivals and departures per day compared to a pre-pandemic average of 500, Vanegas said.
The increase in American tourists helped compensate for the absence of Europeans, whose numbers remain sharply down.
More U.S. tourists came to Quintana Roo during this pandemic-stricken holiday season than one year ago, when the world was just beginning to learn of the coronavirus. They accounted for 9 out of 10 foreign tourists, Vanegas said.
And they are staying longer, with some seemingly waiting out the pandemic at the beach, she said.
Tourists now move from the airport to a van to a hotel, and then on to tours of sun-splashed archaeological sites certified by state health authorities.
Indoor venues also pose a risk: restaurants, theaters, salons and other businesses are permitted to operate at 60% capacity, and indoor gyms at 50%. Hotels can book at 70% capacity.  
Authorities say the state health department aggressively traces any reported infections. Still, there are worrisome signs.
The positivity rate on COVID-19 tests in the state is nearly 50% and the weekly number of COVID-19 deaths quadrupled from the week before Christmas to the week after, according to federal government data.
Health experts fear just the increase in travel through the holiday season will likely lead to spikes in places that previously seemed to have it under control.
The southern state of Oaxaca, which draws tourists to its colonial capital as well as its laid-back Pacific beaches, had half the number of tourists this holiday season as a year earlier. The state's Scretary of Tourism, Juan Carlos Rivera, said that wasn't bad considering the pandemic.
  
If infections increase sharply, pressure will build to close beaches again as they did last spring, spurring massive layoffs.
When the pandemic arrived in Mexico, big hotels started laying off workers with what they called "solidarity breaks." Workers were told it was temporary, that they'd be hired back in a month and most were let go without the benefits they deserved.
She put finishing her college degree on hold.
Her mother, a hotel chambermaid, finally started a new hotel job this month.

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