The work of the Mayan Train that will begin on April 30 will have protocols authorized by the Secretary of Health to avoid affecting workers and contribute to the control of the pandemic, said Rogelio Jiménez Pons Director-General of Fonatur.

The start of work is on the Palenque-Escárcega route, but in May it is planned to start in Cancun in both directions, towards Mérida and Tulum, taking advantage of the fact that both used the right of way of the existing roads.

In the case of Cancun-Tulum, which he said is one of the 5 busiest in the country, there will be a great change, “currently the road has its crossings at the level, but now they will be uneven and the train will go in the middle”.

According to the Fonatur head, the development of the Maya Train will generate about 80 thousand jobs, every 10 kilometers there will be a construction front and a camp with due care and with its healthy distance. In addition, he said, public transportation will not be used.

On the 50 years of Cancun Jiménez Pons assured in an interview on Radio Formula QR, that it will only have to be postponed because Cancun is an example at the world level of development. 

Resources for Tren Maya must be outside Fonatur says Francisco Madrid

Although the Maya Train project sounds good to detonate the southeast of the country, the director of the Center for Tourism Research and Competitiveness of the Anahuac University, (Cicotur) Francisco Madrid Flores, emphasized that the resources for its construction must come from other sources that do not be those of the promotion.

By participating in the webinar “Tourism sector: alternatives to the crisis”, Madrid Flores recalled that in the face of the economic crisis facing the tourism industry not only in Mexico but in the world, support from governments is required, and returning the amount for promotion is one way to do it.

The director of Cicotur commented that in other countries they are already organizing the strategy to boost the travel sector by the time the COVID-19 health contingency ends.

He spoke of countries like the Philippines, which despite not having a very strong tourism industry, his government already has 70 million dollars ready that will go to promotion. In the case of Spain, where tourism represents 12 percent of GDP, there is also already a clear strategy designed between the government and the Private Initiative.

Francisco Madrid points out that the impact of eliminating DNR resources to allocate them to the Mayan Train, already had an impact on a slower growth rate of international travelers by air in 2019, with just two percent, while in the United States the increase was six percent.

After the pandemic of COVID-19, the recovery of the tourist sector will be slow, predicts the academic, and the DNR is the option that was decided in the 90s, for that purpose and that right now would pay around 5 billion pesos to the promotion abroad.

Although the Mayan Train will be a great work, the director of the Cicotur sees two problems in this: the opportunity cost for the sector in general, and the low tourist viability. He considers that the most profitable section would be Cancun-Tulum.

Francisco Madrid considers that to boost tourism in the region, it is better to detonate a network of flights and air infrastructure

Source: nitu.mx

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