Los Cabos coronavirus: aiming to reactivate tourism with new vitality

As of today, the total of Los Cabos coronavirus cases reaches 2,835 confirmed cases and 169 deaths. There are 120 active ongoing Covid-19 cases and 2,197 patients recovered.

This Monday, September 21, 2020, the hospital occupation by patients with COVID-19 increased in the municipality of Los Cabos. According to the analysis table organized by the Business Coordinating Council (BCC) on the situation of the pandemic, from last Friday, September 18th to date, an increase of 3 percent in public hospitals in the city is reported.

"We started out with a 22 percent hospital occupancy, which is 3 percent higher than we had last Friday. The numbers remain between 18 and 22 percent: these are manageable numbers. On Friday we had 34 people, today we have 37 patients. Here the most important thing is to realize that we are still in a pandemic, we will not get tired until everyone understands that the virus is there," reported Julio Castillo Gomez president of the CCC and head of the "Mesa Covid".

Castillo Gomez reiterated the message to take care of health in the city, since it has been a week since the authorities of the Health Secretariat (SSA) in Baja California Sur (BCS) warned of general relaxation in the measures of healthy distance.

"The message continues to be in favor of health, that they continue to have health measures that we have learned. It is important to use mouth guards in public areas and avoid crowds of people, especially where people are susceptible to getting worse if they get sick. This has not happened and these measures have been the tools to manage these good numbers about COVID-19," warned Julio Castillo.

The recovery that Los Cabos is experiencing is being gradual. At the moment the capacity allowed in the stores and restaurants is 40%. So far only 70% of the businesses have been opened, so the businessmen believe that it will be until next year when they will increase their sales again.

This is the second week in a row that the COVID-19 epidemiological traffic light in Baja California Sur (BCS) is at level orange 4, which allows 40 percent capacity on the beaches.

In Los Cabos, the beaches have been open since June 15, after closing from March to June due to the pandemic. Since last week, a 40 percent capacity is allowed, and yes, in almost 3 months of reopening of beaches these have not been closed again thanks to the participation of the citizens.

In the state capital, La Paz, it was until last weekend that the most emblematic beaches were reopened, which resulted in long lines of visitors, many of whom were left out.

It is the weekends that have the greatest influx of visitors, with Sunday being the most critical day. During the past Sundays between 9 and 11 thousand visitors have been registered in the 11 beaches that the destination keeps open derived from the COVID-19 traffic light. When the maximum number of people allowed per beach is exceeded, the figure varies from one beach to another but is around a thousand people, the beach is closed and no more people are allowed to enter.

The schedule of the beaches is from 10 in the morning to 6 in the afternoon, but according to the elements of Public Security and ZOFEMAT posted on the beaches reported that, although the schedule established to stay on them is until 6 in the afternoon, they begin to remove them from 5 so that the departure is in order.

Under the new color of the federal (orange) and state signals, Los Cabos hotels are able to operate up to 30% of their capacity, and the restaurants no more than 25%. These percentages will gradually increase as the entity approaches the green color.

In response to the alert issued by the U.S. government about traveling to Mexico due to the high numbers of coronavirus infections. The Secretary of Tourism mentioned that it is working with business partners to continue promoting Los Cabos as a safe place. The different security processes and protocols have helped tourists feel safe and continue to arrive in Los Cabos.

The opening of the beaches of Los Cabos has a schedule of stay from 10:00 in the morning to 18:00 in the afternoon, every day. The same applies to maritime service providers, as there are tourists who like to embark on a great nautical adventure in recreational boats that usually take groups of visitors to beaches like El Chileno and Santa María, mainly to have a wide variety of attractions.

In 2019, 72% of the 2.6 million tourists that Los Cabos attracted were of foreign origin, of which 40% came from California, United States, a key market that is now in dispute with other destinations such as Hawaii.

Although California is the most important market - where even Los Cabos opened its first representative office outside the country in 2019 - tourists from other U.S. cities like Seattle, Washington, and some border states like Texas and Arizona are keen to spend their holidays in the Sea of Cortez.

About 40% of the tourists the region receives come from California, a market that will have to fight with destinations like Hawaii. Locally, the competition is with Puerto Vallarta and Cancun.

Coronavirus did not affect rich tourists

According to statistics from the Los Cabos Tourism Trust, the municipality has registered the arrival of 19,871 international tourists on private flights -from January to June 2020-, having a decrease of 33% compared to the previous year, when 29,674 tourists were registered.

Similarly, the Cabo San Lucas Airport (CSL) received 19.2% of these visitors in 2020, registering in June of this year, 616, less than -4.1% compared to the same month in 2019; 100% of the tourists who arrived in June are residents from the United States.

At the Los Cabos International Airport (SJD) 80.8% of foreign visitors arrived on private flights in 2020; in June there were 2,336 international passengers, which is, less than -16.2% compared to 2019 of the same month.

In 2019, from January to June, 23,745 international passengers were registered by air at the Los Cabos International Airport (SJD); in addition, at the Cabo San Lucas Airport (CSL), 5,929 tourists arrived at the Cabeño municipality by private flights.

By Mexicanist