• ISLAND: The tourist industry in Mexico’s Caribbean island of Cozumel is scheduled to reopen on June 17 under enhanced hygiene protocols including increased sanitization of facilities, required use of face masks by staff and guests and the potential end of food buffets.
• CAPACITY: Like other destinations across Mexico, local authorities are expected that hotels and restaurants in Cozumel (pop. 86,000) will reopen at just 30%-50% capacity. According to Mexico’s statistics agency (INEGI), Cozumel has 51 hotels and 225 restaurants.
• NO RUSH: “There is no rush because there is no need why open at this time: There are no tourists”, said Pedro Joaquín Delbouis, the Mayor of Cozumel. “The market is not ready (at this time) for us to begin receiving a large number of tourists. We are going to open what we can”.
• CRUISES: Despite the June reopening, Cozumel will still have to wait for cruise ships to resume operations until at least July or August. Cozumel is ranked as the third most popular cruise port in the world -just behind Miami and Cape Canaveral- receiving 4.6 million cruise passengers in 2019.
