Canada suspends flights to Mexico and the Caribbean
An aerial view of an almost empty beach in Cancun, Mexico after a coronavirus lockdown was imposed in March AFP / File
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3 min
No more vacations under the Mexican sun: starting this Sunday, Canada is suspending its flights to Mexico and the Caribbean for the next three months.
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With our correspondent in Mexico,
Alix Hardy
At Prime Tours, an agency that organizes tourist tours in Cancun, cancellations have been falling in series for two days.
Canadians who had booked stays along the Mexican beaches at the end of winter are forced to give up their vacation in the sun.
“
We received a mountain of cancellations.
This time of year is exactly when we welcome Canadian tourists!
I find this to be an extreme measure, a test and quarantine is more than enough, there was no need to suspend flights.
It affects the entire tourism ecosystem and many families are affected,
”laments the marketing director of Prime Tours.
In Mexico, the news caught everyone off guard, as the economy was just starting to recover thanks to renewed activity over Christmas.
Marc Giel has worked in tourism in Cancun for four years, he offers motorcycle tours:
“
It's really a cold shower because in recent weeks tourism had picked up a little, a lot of people asking for information, here see a lot of tourist vans starting to move again and suddenly it was really a blow to hammer because we had hope in recent weeks as to what would happen next.
There is a feeling of injustice, some people who will think that it is a necessary evil but a majority who think that it is not necessarily a good way to fight and that it affects a lot of people.
"
Mexican authorities, who have never closed their borders since the start of the pandemic, have urged Canada to reconsider this measure in order to avoid, they warn, a deep economic crisis in North America.
After Americans, Canadians are the second largest visitors to Mexico.
Tourism represents 16% of Mexican GDP but up to 80% of income in seaside areas.
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Mexico
Canada
Tourism
Coronavirus