Recent reports of violence in communities north of Mazatlán have severely impacted the rural restaurant sector.
Businesses located along rural tourist routes are experiencing sales drops of up to 60 percent due to the drastic reduction in visitors.
The situation has gone beyond a period of low sales and has become a crisis of operational viability. The fear among local diners and tourists of traveling on the highways leading to the rural communities has strangled the economic flow of communities that depend entirely on weekend tourism.
The president of the Mazatlán Gastronomic Council, Roberto Osuna Valdez, stated that while sales in the city increased by up to 40 percent over the weekend due to Father’s Day celebrations, sales in the rural area remained low.
“In terms of sales, it’s the same; I’m already prioritizing the city. First, we have to recover Mazatlán so we can then recover the rural economy,” he said.
Restaurant owners point out that while Mazatlán’s tourism sector shows signs of recovery during weekends or specific holiday periods in the urban area, the rural periphery suffers from prolonged commercial neglect.
In response to constant complaints and the resulting business losses, municipal authorities announced the deployment of coordinated operations between federal, state, and municipal agencies.
The strategy includes increased preventive patrols in the towns of El Quelite and La Noria, as well as special surveillance on roads, with the goal of restoring confidence to tour operators and diners in anticipation of the upcoming peak seasons.
Source: oem
