By José Antonio Pérez
The president for the Puerto Peñasco Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCV), Hector Vázquez del Mercado, confirmed expectations were definitely met over the Easter / Holy Week period, with the arrival of 117,000 tourists and 150 million pesos in revenue.
Vázquez del Mercado highlighted the fact the number of visitors is actually higher if you take into consideration the amount that stayed in local residences or camped. Yet, their office can only speculate these visitors represent a 30% increase to the reported numbers.
The president of the OCV added that Hotel and Resort capacity during Holy Week was at 94%, while during the week after Easter it was a healthy 90%.
These numbers show that tourism for the rest of 2019 should remain sustained, though without any notable increases as felt in previous years.
Taking this into consideration, Hector Vázquez explained the biggest challenge is maintaining foreign tourism and reinforcing promotion toward the national markets of Tijuana, Mexicali, San Luis Rio Colorado, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, and Caborca.
He noted the next big holiday will be at the end of May, U.S. Memorial Day weekend, where Puerto Peñasco is expecting around 30 thousand visitors, mostly from the United States.