An overwhelming majority (almost 80 percent) of international visitors to Baja California’s Los Cabos Corridor fly in from America. The last time the vacation destination saw any flow of visitors, before Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shut down the country in early April, was March for spring break. A group of 200 students who had visited from UT-Austin infamously tested positive for coronavirus.
Mexican governmental officials and the Los Cabos Tourism Board are sensitive to the complex, uneasy relationship the region has with the United States. The country that can help the Baja Peninsula get back on its feet, in the form of millions of tourists and billions in revenue, is also the COVID-19 epicenter of the world. But even with travel at a standstill, both logistically (flight routes are down) and philosophically (the optics of a Cabo vacation right now are pretty bad), the area is marching forward with a five-phase plan towards reopening.
The first phase is getting about 40 percent of the Los Cabos hotels open by June, but under severe hygiene measures. The hospitality industry will be at the forefront of a new “Clean Point” certification standard, where visitors will be subject to health screenings at airports, ship docks and other points of entry, which will include thermal imaging and risk questionnaires. Social distancing will continue to be the norm. From there the region will look to hit various checkpoints, with the goal of eventually reaching the fifth phase — 60 percent of international air connectivity and 80 percent of usual bookings restored by early 2021.
It’s a sobering thought, that even a year from now, an area so reliant on tourism will be far from 100 percent restoration. Los Cabos can usually count on four million visitors a year. But other tourism boards would be wise to draft similar plans, no matter how bleak the next 12 months may appear. Total transparency will only help travelers make informed decisions, and hopefully, plan future trips.
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