Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, August 13, 2026 – At least a dozen Puerto Vallarta restaurants have stopped operating during the low season as industry leaders report business running 20% to 25% below normal.
The figure includes restaurants taking their customary summer break as well as businesses that have closed permanently. Seasonal shutdowns lasting three or four months are common in Puerto Vallarta, but restaurant operators say this year’s slowdown began earlier and left less money available to carry businesses through August and September.
Evangelina Sánchez Dueñas, secretary of the local chapter of the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry, said she had personally observed at least 12 closures. Her estimate was not presented as an official count of permanent business failures.
Sánchez said some restaurants are operating with minimum staffing while others decided to close until demand returns. She described a local spending cycle in which weaker income among taxi drivers, restaurant workers, merchants and other tourism-dependent households produces another drop in restaurant consumption.
The restaurant industry remains one of the city’s largest sources of work and small-business activity. Sánchez estimated that roughly 3,000 food businesses operate in Puerto Vallarta’s tourist areas, while the wider municipality has about 12,000 restaurants, fondas, cafés, taco shops and other food and beverage establishments.
A dozen closures represent a small share of that total. The concern is that restaurant reports now point in the same direction as airport traffic and formal tourism employment.
Puerto Vallarta International Airport handled 484,200 passengers in July, down 12.1% from the same month last year. International traffic fell 29.8%, from 229,100 passengers in July 2025 to 160,900 this July, while domestic traffic increased 0.6%.
Between January and July, the airport processed 3.81 million passengers, compared with 4.36 million during the same period last year. That amounts to 550,000 fewer passengers and a 12.6% decline, according to GAP’s July traffic filing. PVDN previously examined the sharp loss of international passengers and its growing importance to the summer economy.
Those numbers present a different picture from the headline hotel outlook. Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat projected Puerto Vallarta would average 64.4% hotel occupancy between July 20 and August 30, placing the city second among the destinations listed in its summer forecast.
Hotel occupancy measures rooms in use. It does not measure restaurant customers, average checks or spending outside hotels. A destination can maintain moderate occupancy while independent restaurants, bars, shops and transportation providers receive less business, particularly when the mix of domestic and international travel changes.
Employment records show the slowdown had already reached Puerto Vallarta’s tourism payroll before the deepest part of low season.
The Jalisco Institute of Statistical and Geographic Information counted 25,569 formal tourism jobs in Puerto Vallarta during June. That was 1,219 fewer jobs than the 26,788 positions recorded in June 2025, a decline of about 4.6%.
Tourism-related work accounted for 30.8% of formal employment in the city this June, down from 32% one year earlier. The classification covers several tourism activities and should not be read as a restaurant-only job count, but it confirms that the weakness extends beyond a handful of closed dining rooms.
Restaurants had been adjusting before the latest closures. In June, PVDN reported that some operators were reducing staff days and shortening schedules. The anticipated World Cup lift also failed to reach much of the sector, with many establishments reporting weaker sales than expected during the tournament.
Sánchez said the pressure dates to the tourism disruption that followed February 22. The loss of business during what should have been the final profitable stretch of high season reduced the cash normally carried into summer. Restaurants still entered low season with property taxes, municipal licenses, Social Security payments, rent and other fixed expenses.
CANIRAC members are now looking toward the September Independence Day weekend as the next opportunity to improve sales. The return of Canadian seasonal travel in October will provide the more important test as temporarily closed restaurants prepare to reopen, and the city moves toward winter high season.
