by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:05 AM ET, Fri January 11, 2019
Update: January 12, 2019 at 10:50 a.m. ET
The Mexican Association of Travel Agencies revealed Friday that it would begin its boycott of Chichen Itza Monday, January 14 after the Yucatan government announced a 110-percent rate increase to enter the site.
"We are not going to sell Chichen tours as January 14," association president Sergio Gonzalez Rubiera told the Riviera Maya News. "We do not expect the boycott to last all year, but if the boycott lasts a whole week or 15 days and we have managed to sit down and negotiate with the state government, the affectation will be only during this period."
The Yucatan government announced Friday that Chichen Itza tickets purchased by tour operators before January 31 would remain at the same price as last year, but the price increase will go into effect on February 1.
As a result of government officials in the Yucatan raising admission prices to Chichen Itza by 110 percent, the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies for Quintana Roo is considering a boycott.
According to the Riviera Maya News, the association revealed it would consider halting all tourist transfers to the archaeological site if Yucatan president Mauricio Vila Dosal doesn't lower the recent cost increases.
The announcement of the price change for Chichen Itza was initially revealed at the end of December. Travel agencies and tour guides were not notified of the increase until the rule was already enacted, and as a result, many are deciding to send clients to the archaeological site at Tulum.
Mexican Association of Travel Agencies president Sergio Gonzalez Rubiera said the organization sent a letter to the Yucatan agency with the hopes of negotiating the unilateral decision. Travel agents argue they will be forced to absorb the cost since their travel packages were sold up to a year in advance.
Gonzalez Rubiera released a statement on the price increase to the Riviera Maya News:
"It is a lack of respect that we had to find out from the media and that there was no official notification from the government of the State of Yucatan, despite the fact that the Cultural and Tourist Units of the State of Yucatan's main clients are us."
"The travel agencies of Cancun, Riviera Maya and Cozumel generate between 70 and 75 percent of the tourists that visit just Chichen Itza. It is an aberration, unacceptable, illogical and is absurd."
"We would resort to the boycott because we would be in serious difficulty to commercialize the archaeological sites of Yucatan and instead, would promote those of Quintana Roo such as Tulum and Coba."
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