Mexico Tourism Executives Share What They Learned Through the Pandemic

Tourism in Mexico and Latin America suffered a temporary standstill as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This temporary paralysis not only hit Caribbean economies and employment hard but also many local communities in the Latin American region.

Some companies have lost personnel along the way as the industry began its path to recovery.

What have they learned through it all?

From hotels to destinations, tourism officials and executives in the region share their lessons learned.

Gonzalo del Peón, President Group, AMResorts Americas & Global Commercial said: "There are great learnings. We had a crisis in terms of personnel, here there was no support or subsidy to maintain vacancies, so we had to force ourselves to reopen hotels very soon and pay the payroll. The crisis that we have today is a lack of personnel, we are hiring in the Riviera Maya and we do not find enough personnel and this generates that more salary must be offered. There is definitely not a situation of operating with less staff, we continue to hire. We learned to do more with less, but not in the hotel, but in administrative areas and there we created synergies. We learned to do more with fewer people".

An impact scenario shows that the slump in tourism may cause total GDP growth in the Caribbean and Latin America to fall by 8% points and 1% points, respectively, while total employment could potentially decline by 7% points in the Caribbean and 1% point in Latin America.

"We must always have our feet on the ground, and we must be attentive to our needs and those of the family and of our collaborators and clients and develop greater empathy with them, to develop a concern for our community and protect it and where we live, where the business is. To be more efficient and respect nature. This was a shake and a yank on the ears for everyone to put a stop to predation and become more aware of where we live. There is a flutter of staff turnover. In January it was the highest month with 14% and it was very strong because we had high occupancy. Today it does not even reach 4%. It is important not to tire the staff with excessive shifts and overwork and to avoid burn-out, which encourages people to leave", said Ricardo Orozco Arce - vice president of Operations at Hoteles Solmar & Resorts Los Cabos.