The number of Quintana Roo businesses seeking health certification from the state to prove they have implemented measures to reduce the risk of coronavirus infections has well and truly exceeded expectations.
More than 4,300 tourism-related businesses have applied for certification, said Darío Flota Ocampo, director of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council. The figure represents almost 10% of all businesses in the Caribbean coast state.
Only 1,600 had been expected to apply under the program, which is aligned with criteria established by the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Flota said certifying businesses will be crucial to attracting both Mexican and international visitors to Quintana Roo.
He said that most hotels have already implemented new hygiene and cleanliness standards that exceed those required by the program.
Certified businesses, Flota added, will qualify for inclusion in the new promotional campaign launched by the Quintana Roo tourism sector last week.
While applying for certification is optional, Cancún restaurants that want to reopen next Monday will have to be certified to do so by the federal health regulatory agency Cofepris, said the president of the local chapter of the national restaurant association, Canirac.
Marcy Bezaeel Pacheco said Cofepris officials will carry out inspections of restaurants in the resort city to ensure that they meet hygiene standards and have reconfigured their spaces to ensure that diners can maintain a safe distance from each other.
She said she expected more than 1,000 restaurants in Cancún to open next week even though Quintana Roo’s traffic light risk level has not yet been downgraded from red.
The state’s entire tourism sector is hoping to reopen on June 8 but hotel occupancy levels are expected to remain low well into the future.
Quintana Roo has recorded almost 2,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic but only 268 are currently active, according to federal Health Ministry data.
Source: El Economista (sp), Luces del Siglo (sp)
