More than 10,000 tourists, and hotel occupancy rates at 61% among principal accommodation providers, helped confirm that negative promotion of the area had minimal impact during the recently celebrated U.S. Memorial Day weekend from May 27-31, reported Oscar Palacio Soto, President of the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau (OCV).
Palacio Soto indicated the city was able to overcome various negative factors, including an alert about unofficial stops along the highway into the city, issued by the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, as well as questions of safety on the Mexican side of the border and current economic difficulties in the neighboring state of Arizona.
He detailed that, according to periodic monitoring over the busy weekend, Thursday, May 27 reported a 30% occupancy rate while on Friday this rose to 58%, 88% by Saturday and 69% on Sunday.
Based on this, he remarked, the average occupancy rate for the holiday weekend was 61%, representing positive numbers that undoubtedly could have been better.
Palacio Soto added 2010 saw a 17% increase over the data from last year with respect to influx of cars to the area over the holiday weekend.
According to reports from the U.S. customs office in Lukeville, AZ, 5,941 vehicles crossed back into the U.S. from Sunday to Tuesday over the 2009 Memorial Day break. In 2010 the number of cars returning between Sunday to Tuesday was 6,931, or rather 990 more vehicles.
The OCV President stated the statistics from average hotel rates, at 61%, and those of the nearly 7,000 vehicles returning to the U.S. after the holiday, confirms that easily there were more than 10,000 tourists in Puerto Peñasco for U.S. Memorial Day, the majority coming from Arizona.
Palacio Soto noted the unfortunate loss of life of a 58 year old tourist due to a 4-wheeler accident did not taint the overall vacation period, as this was an unpredictable event and one that was difficult to prevent.
He reiterated the alert issued by the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, with respect to false traffic stops along the Peñasco-Sonoyta highway, had minimal impact as room cancellations were substituted by walk-in guests.
In general, Puerto Peñasco had a good influx of tourism, he underscored, particularly following the negative image created essentially one week prior to the U.S. Memorial Day celebrations. Fortunately, they were able to combat this with reliable data demonstrating the reality of this tourist destination in respect to safety.
Palacio Soto considered Puerto Peñasco can be thought of as a safe and stable destination for tourism from the U.S., and particularly for those from Arizona.

By Jose Antonio Perez