Hotel Occupancy Rises, Revenues Down

(Acapulco, AN 26 November) According to Acapulco’s hotel operators, the current year has registered an overall improvement in average hotel occupancy, when compared with 2009. Last year was badly affected by the economic crisis and the influenza scare. In spite of negative press spawned by drug gang violence, the year 2010 has shown a 10% improvement. Mariano Gutiérrez Otero, the director of the Hotel Tortuga, explained to the press that the increase in occupancy came at the cost of an overall reduction in room rates by approximately 20%. He added that visitors to Acapulco are still recovering economically, and arrive with limited budgets. “Unlike government monopolies and subsidized enterprises, which increase prices whenever they want to, we hoteliers have been forced to drop room rates just to stay in business,” he said. He was referring to the increases in costs to hotels for water service from CAPAMA and electric service from the Federal Power Commission (CFE). He added that the tax burden on hotels has also increased. “For that reason, those of us in the hotel sector demand of the authorities that they not raise taxes and utility rates any further. They must clean out their payrolls of ghost workers, cut unnecessary jobs, be more efficient, and reduce operating costs. They cannot keep pushing all that off onto the shoulders of the regulated hotel sector,” he said.