Tourism and COVID-19 are both beating expectations in Puerto Vallarta this summer

Tourism from the United States has been a determining factor in the recovery of the tourism industry in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, said hotel businessman, Abel Villa.

“The American market was the one that began to skyrocket the most; As a hotelier, I knew that there was going to be a recovery in 2021, but I believed that it would be very gradual and it was not like that. From March onwards, demand began to grow, even to levels that we had not seen in some seasons, in the best years in the past”, the CEO of the Buenaventura Hotels chain said.

According to the Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP), in June of this year, the Puerto Vallarta airport received 380,500 national and international passengers, a figure that represented an increase of 2.8% compared to the 270,100 passengers mobilized in the same month of 2019, before the pandemic. Foreign tourists (221,900) growth was 11.3 percent.

“Yes we are prepared, but the challenge is to handle the greater volume, because obviously at the beginning of the pandemic the recovery was very slow and from February to here when vaccines began to have a positive effect, especially in the United States and the countries that were more advanced in their vaccination programs, a growth in tourist demand began to be noticed”, said Abel Villa.

While the tourism industry is gitty over better than expected tourism in Puerto Vallarta, the healthcare industry is facing a third wave of COVID-19 cases. The increase in COVID-19 has placed Puerto Vallarta as the leader in active cases of the virus in Jalisco, recording more cases than Guadalajara, the second-largest city in the country.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Puerto Vallarta has recorded a total of 10,914 infections, with 25% of all cases occurring this month.

The Naval Hospital in Puerto Vallarta has been at full compacity in their COVID-19 care unit for a week, while the Regional Hospital is reporting 71% occupancy, and 54% in the IMSS Hospital.

Puerto Vallarta is currently experiencing the highest level of threat from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, above what was registered in the summer of 2020, and also during the peak of the Christmas season, explained researchers from the University of Guadalajara (UdeG).

The academics of the Institute for Research and Studies of the cities that belong to the University Center of Art, Architecture, and Design (CUAAD), developed a predictive model of Covid-19 that measures the threat from 0 to 10: with 10 being the highest risk. While the average threat level in the State is 5, in Puerto Vallarta it is 8, the academics warned.

On Thursday, Mexico added 16,244 new covid cases, marking the third consecutive day that cases experienced the largest daily increase since January. Deaths increased by 419, also the biggest rise in nearly two months.

There are no plans for new confinements, Health Secretary López Gatell said Tuesday during President Andrés Manuel López Obrado’s daily press conference. “People are tired after so many months of the pandemic,” he said, adding that the government is prepared to add beds where necessary. “We cannot ask people to reduce their mobility as we did at the beginning.”

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, again played down the pandemic this Friday and said that the country is experiencing “small outbreaks” of the covid-19.

“There are these small outbreaks in different parts, we are going to maintain covid hospitals, so we are waiting to go from an emergency situation to normality,” said the president in his morning press conference, questioned about the permanent hiring of health personnel.

His statements come despite the fact that Mexico added 16,244 infections this Thursday, the highest number so far in the third wave of the pandemic that began a month ago and the largest daily increase since January 29.

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