Hoteliers Call SEFOTUR Data “Unreliable”

(Zihuatanejo, AN 7 December) Rogelio Lozano Calderón, president of the Zihuatanejo Hotel Association (called “AHZ”), has labeled the hotel occupancy data periodically released by the state Secretary of Tourism Development (SEFOTUR) as “unreliable.” The reason: “They [the compilers at SEFOTUR] are more concerned about the political impact of their numbers than in the reality that we who dedicate ourselves to tourism are actually living.” In an interview yesterday, Lozano said that Zihuatanejo hotels do indeed have reservations for the Christmas vacation time, but only for specific days, like December 26-30, when capacity can go to 100%. SEFOTUR is apparently predicting 100% occupancy for a much longer period.

Yesterday SEFOTUR reported that the occupancy of Zihuatanejo hotels during the past week surpassed that of the Ixtapa hotels. Lozano disagrees. “I don’t go by the SEFOTUR statistics because in reality they don’t mean anything and are useless.” He said, “They are a blindfold that we put over our eyes so that we can say that things are going very well.” The representative of the hotels added, “We have a state tourism secretary, Gloria Guevara Manzo, who has not even set foot here, and nevertheless has the gall to make pronouncements that contradict all the canons of tourism. In addition, we have a secretary of tourism development, Ernesto Rodríguez Escalona, who has not come to Zihuatanejo for years.” Lozano said that his hotel association has gone to visit Rodríguez Escalona several times, and in truth, “we think he just does not think we are important enough. It doesn’t hurt his image if the high season goes poorly. Basically, we are on our own.”