"Mexico will not be impacted by Thomas Cook bankruptcy": Sectur

Susana González G.
Photo: Juan Manuel Valdivia
Translation: Jordan Sheldahl
La Jornada Maya

Mexico City
Miércoles 2 de octubre, 2019

The Secretary of Tourism (Secretaría de Turismo/ Sectur) says the bankruptcy of British tour operator Thomas Cook “does not represent a significant impact for the Mexican tourism industry" citing its contribution to the country's tourism was "marginal".

Last year, the British company generated up to $100 million in revenue for the Mexican tourism industry; however, this substantial figure represented only 0.4 percent of the national tourism industry.

Sectur predicts that if all trips to Cancun previously purchased through Thomas Cook were cancelled by the end of the year, Mexico would lose about 23 million dollars. This figure is equivalent to only 0.1 percent of Mexico’s annual tourism industry.

The Agency hopes that the suspensions of Thomas Cook’s activities will not affect the flow of tourists from the United Kingdom; especially since companies like TUI, Wamos, and Transat will be able to cover the market.

[b]Schedules just to Cancun[/b]

Thomas Cook was only flying to Cancun at its peak season from April to September where 70 percent of its business was concentrated. Per year, the tour operator provided an average of 112,864 airplane seats to Cancun; More than half of these came from Manchester which provided 66,933 tickets. The rest of the seats sold, came from London (33,548), Glasgow (12,793), and Belfast (664). According to the Sectur, between January and July 2019, Thomas Cook transported 122,864 passengers on 401 flights. 27,248 passengers were scheduled to arrive in Cancun from Manchester, London, and Glasgow in the last quarter of the year.

[b]Mexican Tourism sector will take legal measures for bankruptcy[/b]

Darío Flota Ocampo, general director of the Council of Tourist Promotion of Quintana Roo, stated that hotels, as well as tourist transport and excursion providers in Cancun and Riviera Maya, will have to resort to different legal measures to ensure the payment of outstanding debts by the British corporate company.

The official stated that short term losses will be expected in the tourist heavy regions of the Mexican Caribbean because, much of the British tourism in these areas came from Thomas Cook. The United Kingdom requisitioned the remaining scheduled flights from the Thomas Cook airline in the hopes that the long term flow of tourists from the UK would normalize.

Speaking from Madrid, Spain, Dario Flota commented that he believes that after a period of transition and accommodation, passengers will be absorbed by the market itself and Thomas Cook's competitors, such as TUI - acronym for Touristik Union International, a company of German origin -the most important of them. “We will see a strengthening of air operations, surely an increase in the frequencies of airlines that already connect to different destinations and in our case with British Airways, which will gradually assume the market share that Thomas Cook covered in England”.