Cancun, Q.R. — The Mexican Association of Travel Agencies for Quintana Roo says they could boycott transferring tourists to Chichén Itzá if the Yucatan government maintains the 110 percent fee increase to the site.
The Association of Travel Agencies says they could refuse to transfer tourists to the archaeological site if Yucatan president, Mauricio Vila Dosal, maintains the increase to access the ruins of Chichén Itzá. At the end of December, the Yucatan government announced that the fee for visitors to the site would be more than doubled.
The increase was made without notice to travel agencies or tour guides who have since said they will instead, send tourists to the archaeological site at Tulum.
In a press conference, Sergio González Rubiera, president of the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies in Cancún explained that a letter was sent to the Yucatan agency to negotiate because the unilateral decision, if not reverted, means that travel agents will have to absorb the cost since their travel packages were sold up to a year in advance.
He says that the increase in prices, which is more than double for foreigners to enter Chichén Itzá, “is indiscriminate and exaggerated” and that the response of the Yucatan government to postpone the increase until February 1, was a mockery.
“It is a lack of respect that we had to find out from the media and that there was no official notification from the government of the State of Yucatan, despite the fact that the Cultural and Tourist Units of the State of Yucatan’s main clients are us.
“The travel agencies of Cancun, Riviera Maya and Cozumel generate between 70 and 75 percent of the tourists that visit just Chichén Itzá,” he explained adding “It is an aberration, unacceptable, illogical and is absurd.”
González Rubiera pointed out that the tourism industry requires incentives, not obstacles, and urged the Yucatan government to reconsider and negotiate in a serious and responsible otherwise, “We would resort to the boycott because we would be in serious difficulty to commercialize the archaeological sites of Yucatan and instead, would promote those of Quintana Roo such as Tulum and Cobá,” he acknowledged.
