Employees at the 1,000-year-old complex of
Mayan temples, palaces and pyramid platforms
said the cast acted “immaturely” and refused to
follow posted rules requiring face masks and
social distancing. Photos posted on social media
showed them clowning around and posing in
close contact atop one ancient structure.
Yucatan officials denied they paid the cast
members but acknowledged the visit was part
of a promotional campaign and defended
the invitation.
Michelle Fridman, the Yucatan state tourism
secretary, wrote in a Tweet that “the influencers
were not paid one single peso. It also wasn’t
some half-baked idea but rather part of a
strategy included in the plan for recovery from
COVID, and if we carefully measure the impact,
we estimate we got 200 million hits for a sector
that urgently needs promotion.”
Fridman’s office did not respond to requests
for comment, but her stance apparently boiled
down to ‘any news is good news’ in a state where
tourism is vitally important.
Tourist arrivals at airports in Mexico fell by
93.4% at the worst point in May, and even with
projections showing some recovery in the
second half of 2020, are expected to end the
year 42.8% below 2019 levels. Tourism provides
11 million jobs, directly or indirectly in Mexico.
The Uxmal dispute was just the latest chapter in
a bad year for Mexican tourism promotion.
In August, due to disputes over payments and
control of the English-language version of the
country’s tourism website, its internet page
appeared with hilarious mistranslations.