Tulum, Q.R. — Passenger transportation service between Tulum and Playa del Carmen is experiencing one of the worst crises in history. Local drivers are reporting a drop of more than 50 percent in passengers.
Moisés Pool, leader of the National Union of Transporters for Change (UNTRAC) in Tulum, says a year ago they were transporting as many as 70,000 people a day. This year, however, they are driving between 30,000 and 35,000 a day.
Moisés Pool explained that this reduction not only directly affects the operators, but also the overall functioning of the unions, which, despite the reduction in demand, maintains the same number of units.
He said with such a historic decrease in passengers, UNTRAC is unable to increase its fleet. According to Moisés Pool, the decrease has resulted in the loss of thousands in earrings per day.
Passenger transfer figures to and from the Tulum airport have also fallen. Lourdes Jiménez Rojo, the Riviera Maya Commercial Manager of ADO Mobility, says they too have experienced a hit.
She says passenger transport numbers have decreased between 20 to 30 percent this summer compared to last summer. Jiménez Rojo commented that they did not meet the travel expectations for Tulum at the start of the summer holidays, noting that according to their figures, other places such as Cancun remained near the same as last year.
Authorities did not speculate on a possible reason for the decrease in passenger flow this year for Tulum.
