by Donald Wood
Last updated: 1:05 PM ET, Tue October 27, 2015
Photo by Greg Custer
When Hurricane Patricia became the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere on Oct. 23, Mexico and the country's abundance of popular tourist destinations braced for impact.
The hurricane reached maximum sustained winds of 200 miles per hour. Just 13 hours later, it had been downgraded to a tropical depression, sparing popular cities like Puerto Vallarta of potential serious damage. Now the vacation destinations along the Pacific Coast of Mexico are once again welcoming visitors back with open arms.
To ease the minds of visitors reconsidering their trip to the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta, the tourism board's director Agustin Alvarez shared a letter with travel partners regarding the impact of the storm.
Alvarez revealed the area did not suffer any deaths, there were few reports of infrastructure damages and the city was completely operational once again. Add in the fact that Puerto Vallarta's airport has also reopened, and business is back to normal in the popular tourist destination.
Here is the official letter released by Alvarez regarding Hurricane Patricia:
Dear Travel Partner,
We are happy to report that Puerto Vallarta was spared by Hurricane Patricia and all is back to normal and 100% operational throughout the city. We are also very thankful that no human loss or infrastructure damages have been reported as a result of this historical event.
The Puerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR) reopened this morning and airlines have resumed regular operations as well as added additional service to help with getting visitors home. The hotels, convention center and marina are open and tour operations as well as local ground transport services are running. There are no disruptions or cancelations to the cruise schedule and we are looking forward to welcoming the Disney Wonder on Monday morning as well as Norwegian's Jewel and the Ruby Princess on Wednesday October 28th as planned.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our entire tourism industry as well as our municipal, state and national authorities for their swift and effective precautionary actions that ensured the well-being of our visitors and residents. Working against the clock with less than 24 hours, our hotels, tour operators, security forces and emergency personnel managed to evacuate and relocate over 4,000 visitors in Puerto Vallarta to shelters and hotels outside the area prior to the arrival of the hurricane. They have since been returned to their hotels in Puerto Vallarta safe and sound. The successful and well-coordinated management of what could have been a disastrous event is a testament of our commitment to safety and security and we hope will serve as a reassurance that visitors are in safe hands when in Puerto Vallarta.
I would also like to thank you, our travel partners from around the world, for your outpouring of concern, kind words and prayers. We appreciate your unwavering support for Puerto Vallarta and trust you will help us reassure your colleagues and clients that our city is intact and as beautiful as ever.
I invite you to visit our website www.visitpuertovallarta.com and Facebook page www.facebook.com/puertovallarta for the latest news, photos and videos of Puerto Vallarta. Should you have any questions or concerns please free to contact me or our promotions and public relations director Luis Villasenor - luis@visitpuertovallarta.com and our marketing manager Sandra Muñoz - sandra@visitpuertovallarta.com.
On a parting note, I would like to share our thoughts and prayers for the residents and visitors in Costalegre, Colima and Texas that were impacted by Hurricane Patricia. We would like to express our heartfelt solidarity and offer our support to all those facing the damages and many challenges caused by the storm.
Best Regards.
Agustín Álvarez Director Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board
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