After cartel violence slowed tourism this year, some tourists are saying they may choose Corpus Christi instead, but Puerto Vallarta business owners hope otherwise.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As spring break begins, tourism leaders in both South Texas and Mexico are watching travel trends closely following recent cartel-related violence in parts of Mexico two weeks ago.
Business owners in Puerto Vallarta, a popular beach destination on Mexico’s Pacific coast, say tourism dipped in recent weeks after vandalism connected to a military operation targeting cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” on Feb. 22.
Carlos Osuna, who owns Xalli Beach Club in Puerto Vallarta, said the spring break crowd has been noticeably smaller.
“Spring break crowd is probably greatly affected,” Osuna said.
Osuna said restaurants and tourism businesses have seen a significant decline in customers following the incident.
“In the restaurant sector, there seems to be a drop of around 50% in everybody’s normal business,” Osuna said.
While business has slowed, Osuna said the city is far from empty and activity has begun to rebound as conditions have returned back to normal.
“Not to say we’re empty because this is our peak season, but there is, relatively speaking, a significant drop in activity,” he said. “There were quite a few hotel cancellations.”
Tourism officials in Puerto Vallarta say the city remains safe, open and welcoming to visitors. Torres stressed that no civilians or tourists got hurt during the incident.
Daniel Torres, who leads Puerto Vallarta’s hotel association, described the Feb. 22 violence as “an isolated incident.”
“Puerto Vallarta is continuing as normal,” Torres said.
Torres added that strong flight connections to major Texas cities like Dallas, Houston and Austin continue to keep tourism flowing.
“The United States is our most important international market, and Texas plays a very important role for Puerto Vallarta,” Torres said.
Meanwhile, along the Texas Gulf Coast, tourism leaders say spring break activity is ramping up.
Marnie Pate at Port A Escapes has worked in the local tourism industry for 16 years. She said bookings are currently strong.
“We are up for spring break, just because it is that time of year and weather is great right now,” Pate said.
Pate said the demographic of visitors on the island has shifted in recent years.
“There was a time when it was mostly families,” she said. “We felt like the majority of the college kids were maybe down at South Padre or in Galveston or something like that, but there are a lot here now.”
From Puerto Vallarta to the Corpus Christi and Padre Island, coastal communities heavily rely on spring break travel, one of the busiest tourism periods of the year and a key driver for both of their local economies.