Despite several factors stacked against the industry, hotels in the Riviera Maya are reporting numbers that exceeded the negative outlook for the first six months of 2019.

According to Mexico News Daily, the Riviera Maya Hotels Association (AHRM) is reporting an average occupancy rate of 82 percent for the 47,287 hotel rooms in the area, which was a drop of only two percent.

The negative outlook for the hotel industry was based on widespread reports of sargassum washing up on beaches, insecurity and the disbanding of the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM).

“Having almost 82 percent occupation is positive,” AHRM president Conrad Bergwerf told Mexico News Daily. “And even more so if we consider that Quintana Roo continues to be attractive for hotel investment, which added 5,000 rooms in the Mexican Caribbean this year.”

Through the first six months of the year, there were just under seven million occupied room-nights in the Riviera Maya and visits to tourist destinations in Quintana Roo increased by two percent, according to officials from Cancun International Airport.

The occupancy rate for all-inclusive hotels reached 83.6 percent, while European plan hotels were at 71.5 percent and small hotels were at 65.3 percent.

“Even though we’re going through an economic contraction in the country, the hotel sector understands the challenge and assumes the responsibility of working together with the government to find a public policy that will guarantee sustainable development for Mexico and Quintana Roo,” Bergwerf said.