Cancun, Q.R. — Hotel managers around the state are participating in a tourist location system training session with the arrival of the 2023 Cancun hurricane season.
The training is being provided to hotels in all 11 municipalities by the State Secretariat of Tourism (Sedetur). Bernardo Cueto Riestra, who heads Quintana Roo tourism, said the Guest Locator training is an annual program used as a preventive measure with the arrival of the Cancun hurricane season.
Cueto Riestra, explained that for the State Government, it is a priority to safeguard the lives of citizens and tourists and promote a culture of prevention.
He explained that the objective of the training is to ensure that all lodging service providers are prepared to use this technological tool. For this, training sessions have been scheduled in different tourist spots of Quintana Roo, the first having been held in the municipality of Isla Mujeres Tuesday.
In addition to the face-to-face sessions, Sedetur will also organize webinars to ensure that all interested parties can participate in learning about the Guest Locator system.
The Tourist Location System (Guest Locator) demonstrated its effectiveness in 2020 during Hurricane Delta and in 2021 with Hurricane Grace. In both instances, it was possible for authorities to know the exact location of all tourists.
The system allows the government to track lodging service providers, accredited consular bodies, hotel associations, municipal tourism directorates and Sedetur itself, so they can verify the location of tourists and provide information on their current situation.
In the event of a tropical emergency, authorities will know if visitors stayed in their hotel, were transferred to a shelter or were evacuated.
Guest Locator is activated when the State Civil Protection Coordination issues the first alert for a category three hurricane threat (or higher) on the Saffir-Simpson scale, or when the evacuation of tourists from their means of lodging is required.
This system will only be available to municipalities that are impacted by the phenomenon.
Cueto Riestra said that Quintana Roo is vulnerable to tropical systems, for which reason Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa has instructed Sedetur to reinforce training in the management of the Guest Locator.
