Riviera Maya’s Power Crisis: Who Pays?

Riviera Maya, Mexico — The Riviera Maya sells a promise: turquoise waters, world-class hospitality, and a chain of services capable of attending to millions of visitors each year. But in recent weeks, that promise has faced a silent and persistent enemy: blackouts and scheduled power cuts affecting neighborhoods and tourist zones in Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

For a tourist, a power outage is an inconvenience; for workers and hotels, it means lost income, spoiled food, cancellations, and a blow to their reputation. And in the tourism business, reputation is capital.

Local and industry media report that hoteliers are urgently requesting a plan from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) due to the recurrence of failures that are already impacting operations and the well-being of their staff.

Beyond the immediate situation, there are underlying signals. In Tulum, the La Veleta neighborhood has experienced scheduled outages for maintenance while the CFE expands and modernizes the grid: installing poles, transformers, and medium-voltage lines to respond to the area's accelerated growth. These suspensions are announced as improvement works, but for residents and businesses, they mean hours without service and forced operational adjustments. Prior communication and transparent schedules matter: they allow for planning, protecting sensitive equipment, and keeping guests informed.

The problem is not limited to one neighborhood. In Playa del Carmen, neighborhoods like Villas del Sol or Forjadores have suffered prolonged outages in recent weeks, with reports of 12 hours or more without electricity. During peak season or under extreme heat, peak demand further stresses a system already operating at its limit. Here, resilience is not an abstract concept: it is measured in backup generators, battery banks, contingency protocols, and an investment agenda that considers population growth, new hotel connections, and the electrification of services.

The regional precedent is also not helpful: in March 2025, a massive blackout was recorded in the southeast, affecting key cities of the Peninsula, with full restoration not achieved until the early morning hours. While an extraordinary event is not the same as focused outages for construction, the message is clear: installed capacity and distribution infrastructure need to accelerate to keep pace with tourism and housing development.

What can be done? First, planning and communication: a weekly, geo-referenced schedule of maintenance work and potential interruptions, accessible to hotels, vacation rental platforms, restaurants, and residents. Second, visible investments with short-term goals: reinforced critical nodes, redundancy rings, automation of reconnections, and thermographic monitoring of transformers in high-load areas. Third, public-private protocols: if the Hotel Association knows the precise schedules and sectors, it can stagger consumption, adjust check-in/out times, coordinate generators, and avoid simultaneous demand peaks. Fourth, worker protection: adapted transportation and schedules during planned maintenance; the workforce is the invisible heart of the destination.

The Riviera Maya competes with destinations that boast service stability as part of their brand. A comprehensive plan—with quarterly goals, local SAIDI/SAIFI metrics, and a public dashboard—would turn a headache into a story of continuous improvement. It is not about blame, but about governance, priorities, and timely information. Tourism pays the bill when the lights go out; keeping them on demands technical discipline, investment, and coordination.