Yucatán’s hotels are bouncing back, with Valladolid leading the pack

Mexico’s first Courtyard Inn by Marriott, across from Yucatán’s new international convention center, opened for the first time in December during the COVID-19 pandemic after delays that began in June. Photo: Carlos Rosado van der Gracht

Hotels in Yucatán are starting to bounce back after an abysmal couple of years.

Overall, hotels in Yucatán have seen a 25% increase in bookings when compared to this time last year.

But the city leading the charge in terms of recovery is not Mérida but rather Valladolid.

While occupancy rates in Mérida are still just under 50%, over 70% of all available rooms in Valladolid are occupied. 

But it’s important to keep in mind that in sheer numbers of hotel rooms in the state, Mérida is by far the leader with 65% while Valladolid stands at just under 8%.

According to the Sefotur, the state of Yucatán has a total of 15,474 hotel rooms.

However, that does not reflect the ever-growing number of guest houses and rooms on hosting platforms such as Airbnb.

Earlier: What are those creepy statues on the side of the highway? It’s Yucatán’s Carnaval Graveyard, we think

In 2019, hotel occupancy in Yucatán stood just about 60%, but plummeted below 20% in 2020, according to the Observatorio Turistico Yucatán. 

“It has been a very difficult couple of years, but now that vaccinations are widely available and many of the restrictions have been lifted, I think we can expect to see things improve relatively fast,” said Michelle Fridman Hirsch, the state tourism secretary.

Though there are no exact numbers of how many hotels were forced to permanently close during the pandemic, it appears that the majority survived.

“Many hotel owners are using up their savings to keep their businesses open and continue to pay their employees. These efforts can only be described as titanic,” said Armando Bojórquez Patrón, president of Latin America’s Association for Tourism and Culture in January 2021.

Carlos Rosado van der Gracht
Carlos Rosado van der Gracht
Born in Mérida, Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican/Canadian blogger, photographer and adventure expedition leader. He holds degrees in multimedia, philosophy, and translation from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
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