Did I read somewhere that the water taxis are now restricted to 50% of their previous number of passengers? They still have the same expenses (gas, wages, etc.) per trip, so it seems reasonable to me that they should be able to try to get their expenses covered by increasing the fares. If I were there, I'd be happy to support them by paying the higher fares. I'm thinking that many of the national tourists could afford the higher fares, too. At the same time, I know that some of the tourists would find the new fares unaffordable.

I’ve no idea what you read. They are now carrying a maximum of 5 or 6 passengers instead of 7 or 8. The reason they’re raising fees is greed. They may get many clients once, but quickly locals will stop using their service for that fee. My family can’t afford it and we’re better off than a lot of Mexican families. I suspect it will be a short term gain for them unless the idea is to get rid of the riff raff like me, then it’ll work like a charm. More money for boat ride = less money to spend in the restaurants. We are currently in an economy crisis. I suspect this has little to do with service and everything to do with too much oferta and not enough demanda, but Zihuatanejo history clearly shows prices always go up when there is less demand. I’m happy for your financial success, but locals as always will be the most perjudicados as we are for all intents and purposes excluded from yet another of our local beaches.

We'll do our best to keep it up and excel!

The question that has not been asked, thus not answered, is at the present time, there was/is a occupancy rate established by the powers that are, for the hotels, as I understand it. Am I correct?.

In high season in prior years, the occupancy rate has been up to 90+%. In high season, Jan to Mar. Will the MX government raise the occupancy rate for the upcoming high season?

What about us who have made and paid for reservations in that period if they do not? Any comments? Thanks..

If you've made reservations you'll have to contact your lodging provider. The percentage of occupancy permitted depends on how well we do controlling the virus. The head of Mexico's new national health care system called INSABI, Juan Antonio Ferrer, said Guerrero is an example of how Covid-19 is fought. If we do well, then hotels will be able to increase their occupancy percentages. Both the state and the municipio are rated each week by the federal government. We are currently in the condition known as Semáforo Naranja which permits limited activities and business. Semáforo Amarillo will allow us to open up more, Verde completely open, Rojo completely closed.

In high season in prior years, the occupancy rate has been up to 90+%. In high season, Jan to Mar. Will the MX government raise the occupancy rate for the upcoming high season?

What about us who have made and paid for reservations in that period if they do not? Any comments? Thanks..

So they doubled the price of a water taxi, that’s it I’m done. We will be canceling our annual October trip. We went to Cabo last week. The locals were really good about wearing masks, even when exercising but not the tourists. It’s a bad place México is in, starve without tourists or have tourists spread the virus.

Just joking about canceling over 50 pesos but there was about 3 years we didn’t go when Alaska raised airfare from about $400 to $1,000. We just went to Cabo or Cancun instead. Hope it doesn’t happen again as the airlines are really struggling now.

I hear ya. That's the other part of the equation: getting here. It's too much of a drive for most folks, and we were more or less built around tourism that arrived by airline. That's why all our hotels all have inadequate parking. So if we we don't have adequate and affordable airline service it hurts our core tourism. With the carretera from Morelia and parts beyond we get a lot of families and buses, but lots of them are low budget tourists that simply cannot sustain our population of near 130,000. And when prices go up when there is no demand, it hurts all of us in the food chain. Apart from the internet, we still rely a lot on visitors' recommending us to their family and friends, but when they find prices have jumped or services are deficient, they don't recommend us, and I'm already seeing lots of the inland visitors complaining about this price hike, because it is the equivalent of taking food out of their mouth. They would rather have a nice meal on a different beach for that money than have to share a small expensive meal.

Just joking about canceling over 50 pesos but there was about 3 years we didn’t go when Alaska raised airfare from about $400 to $1,000. We just went to Cabo or Cancun instead. Hope it doesn’t happen again as the airlines are really struggling now.

....." That's an odd business practice we've seen before in Zihua: business is slow? Raise prices."

7-10-2020

@Ironwood

I agree.
It seems to me that if "business is slow", that's a good time to have attractive promotions to get people motivated to make purchases they may not do even at regular prices, let alone prices that are raised in times of an economic crisis.

We spent about $1200 Canadian on taxis last season in Zihua. Hope rates don't increase too much.

Zihuatanejo currently registers 203 total cases of Covid-19, with 36 active cases and 30 deaths.

While we are seeing more locals using masks, we are seeing an alarming number of tourists not using them. I haven't hit any with rocks yet, but I'm getting closer.

Water taxi prices for Las Gatas and Isla Ixtapa have jumped to 100 pesos round trip ticket. Poor people like us will be visiting less by water taxi and walking if we go there at all. A shame to see this happen at the worst possible time when there is less demand and a greater need for folks to come and spend their money here. Of course the cooperativos don't see it that way, and they have lots of excuses and reasons and rationalizations, but the bottom line is people see the rate and turn around and walk away. Their next vacation will likely be someplace else because we're pricing ourselves out of a market that we used to enjoy being a niche in. If transportation eats up too much of our visitors' budgets as it's doing, restaurants and shops stand to lose. Our occupancy rates are already so low that they rarely get above 50% in Zihuatanejo. Making Zihuatanejo more expensive only hurts the region more. Visitors want to think they're getting a bargain, but first they have to be able to get here and to get around affordably with enough money left over to enjoy spending here. Now by overbuilding, banning pets on beaches and hiking up transportation prices, we are doing more to run off tourists we desperately need than to attract them. I wouldn't be surprised if our over 600 taxis hiked up their rates using the same excuse. For most of you this may be no big deal, but for locals and most Mexicans it is.

Please respect others by wearing a facemask when you out around other people.