In both cases, the rise in prices is higher than general inflation, which has increased at an average rate of 7.5% per month, and which until June stood at 7.99%, according to the National Consumer Price Index (INPC).
“Among services, the largest annual increases in prices are concentrated in tourist services due to the recovery in demand,” says Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco Base, in a report on the INPC. “Although an increase in the number of coronavirus cases was observed in Mexico in June, the population has not adopted confinement measures that limit the activity of the service sector, which has allowed its recovery.”
The operational indicators of the airline sector account for this recovery. On the one hand, airports such as Cancun, Tijuana and Los Cabos already have more passengers than before the pandemic. In addition, the average occupancy of the 12 largest tourist centers closed June at an average of 59%, with destinations such as Cancún operating at occupancies of 80%, according to the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur).
During week 25 of 2022, #Cancun obtained the highest occupancy level with 79.7%, followed by #Vallarta Port with 74.5% and #LosCabos with 73.1%. ☀️ pic.twitter.com/sl4OLetnut
– MiguelTorrucoMarqués (@TorrucoTurismo) July 2, 2022
Although the variations in the inflation indices have been smaller than in moments of rebound in demand, such as the one seen at the end of 2021, the indices per se they are at the highest levels for a summer since at least 2011.
For Roberto Montalvo, a specialist in the tourism sector at the Universidad Iberoamericana, the indices seen in May and June have the potential to rise in July, the period of greatest growth in the reception of tourists.
“Inflation puts significant pressure on high season rates; I estimate that inflation of 13% is at least around 20%”, she warns. “It is going to shoot up due to temporality, it is inevitable, but also many of the inputs of the industry to operate, both the transportation part and the goods that traditionally feed a hotel, have become more expensive.”