Tulum Hoteliers Debate Mass Events After Festival Violence

Tulum, Mexico — David Ortiz Mena, president of the Tulum Hotel Association and the Mexican Caribbean Hotel Council, has questioned whether the economic spillover from large-scale events like the recent electronic music festival, where two people were murdered, is worth the negative image they can generate.

These types of events, he said, create temporary jobs and benefits that are usually short-lived, while the damage to the tourist reputation can last much longer.

“We do question whether the spillover they cause, which is certainly good, but that spillover lasts a few days, a week, a week and a half, during high season, however, they damage the destination’s image for the entire year,” he emphasized.

Therefore, insecurity is one of the main challenges for the tourism development of the Mexican Caribbean, especially given the accelerated growth of the destination and particularly in a municipality with a relatively small population, around 46,000 inhabitants, which at certain times of the year receives influxes of up to 20,000 or 25,000 additional people due to the organization of mass events.

This situation generates considerable pressure on public services, roadways, hospital capacity, and emergency services, which increases the risk of incidents and acts of violence that can directly impact the perception of the destination.

For this reason, he called on authorities to more rigorously assess the consequences before authorizing events that exceed the municipality’s installed capacity.

Venues like Zamná, he added, have demonstrated having the necessary infrastructure, logistics, and protocols to host large-scale events without resulting in security problems. This differentiation should be considered by authorities when evaluating permits, with the aim of avoiding unnecessary risks for the local population and visitors.

Security does not only depend on police presence, but on comprehensive planning that considers urban growth, mobility, access to health services, and coordination between different levels of government.

“It seems to me that Zamna has proven to be a venue with sufficient installed capacity to handle large-scale events; the fact is that it is one of the venues with the greatest capacity in Quintana Roo. We had other events that took place in Tulum, from which there were regrettable incidents, and we did notice that these incidents are directly linked to the type of events that are carried out,” he stated.