PUERTO VALLARTA, Jalisco — Local business leaders say Puerto Vallarta’s flagship holiday season fell far short of expectations, with hotel rooms in the city’s historic downtown and Romantic Zone left conspicuously empty compared to last year.
In a position paper released Tuesday, the Puerto Vallarta chapter of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) reported that average occupancy during Easter Week hovered between 25 % and 50 %, and that nine out of ten hoteliers logged lower numbers than in 2024. “These figures make it clear that domestic tourism is losing ground in our destination,” the document states.
The findings sharply contradict projections issued earlier in the month by Mexico’s federal Tourism Secretariat, which had forecast an 82.7 % city-wide occupancy rate for the combined Holy Week–Easter break, placing Puerto Vallarta among the nation’s top five destinations.
Coparmex members point to three converging headwinds:
- Price perception – Puerto Vallarta is increasingly viewed as an expensive beach city compared with domestic competitors.
- Weak promotion – Local and state advertising campaigns have not kept pace with rival resorts.
- Vacation-rental boom – A surge in short-term rentals has diluted demand for traditional hotels, fragmenting the market and pressing room rates downward.
“It’s not about pointing fingers, but about re-thinking the course,” said Francisco Vizcaíno, Coparmex Vallarta president, noting that restauranteurs also reported softer sales despite the long holiday.
Coparmex urged municipal and state authorities to convene an emergency round-table with hoteliers, restaurateurs, and independent rental hosts to craft a “realistic, data-driven tourism strategy” ahead of the summer high season. The business group offered to channel expert input through its Tourism Commission to “restore the dynamism of our main economic engine.”
Tourism sustains tens of thousands of jobs across Puerto Vallarta’s hotel, service, and transport sectors. According to Coparmex, every ten-point drop in Easter occupancy can siphon roughly 150 million pesos (US $9 million) from the region’s economy in lost lodging, dining, and tour revenue. While vacation-rental platforms may absorb some visitors, Coparmex argues that their diffuse nature “masks a structural decline in overall visitor spend.”
What happens next?
- Stakeholder summit – Coparmex proposes a May workshop to align city and state promotion budgets with industry priorities.
- Data transparency – The group will release weekly occupancy dashboards through the summer to track recovery.
- Regulation debate – Hoteliers are pressing city hall to revisit licensing and tax rules for short-term rentals, a measure likely to face pushback from property owners.
With summer just eight weeks away, business leaders warn that failing to act could entrench a new, lower baseline for visitor numbers. “Puerto Vallarta cannot afford to treat this as an anomaly,” Vizcaíno said. “Either we retool quickly, or we risk ceding market share for good.”
