The president of business group Cetur says that the tourist “hookers” not only hurt the legitimate merchants, but the image of Mérida and Yucatán, by offering products at a very high cost or that are not of high quality…
A call specifying the clothing, its place of origin and path of the prospect is the way in which tourist “hookers” approach their “victims”. They are strategically located inside the Historical Center of Mérida and have become a real mafia that hits the established merchants.
The way of operating of these people is very marked. After a first meeting, the fraudsters know the plans and personal information of the tourist, which is provided to an accomplice who is located in another street to try to corral the tourist and thus finish convincing and closing the deal, although this is not a formal service.
The president of the Tourist Business Council of Yucatan (Cetur), Jorge Escalante Bolio, commented that the situation not only harms legitimate businesses, but also the tourist image of Mérida and Yucatán, by offering products at a very high cost or that is not quality. “It’s a scoundrel mafia,” he said.
To this situation, the tourists are defenseless since they do not have any guarantee from those who provide the service.
“The tourist does not report. If you come to Mérida a day and a half or two days, obviously you do not want to lose a whole day in the Procuraduría denouncing. Knowing this, the scoundrels act in bad faith, damage the tourist image of Merida and Yucatan, harm the tourist union and the commercial guild,” he explained.
AN OLD THEME
The issue is not new, he said, and on several occasions the Cetur has reported it seriously to the city council.
“And I do not know if the city council does not want or can not, or if the laws are not made to remedy this type of problem, but nothing has ever been done,” he said.
In this same vein are the mainly women street vendors from Chiapas, a whole issue that has involved Human Rights and the defense of the buyers themselves, so it considered necessary to investigate the treatment received by the women and children who circulate in the streets, as this could present a problem for tourists.
“There should not be any Chiapanecas or scoundrels in the Historical Center; and if there is, it is because the authorities allow it, but it is not right,” he reiterated.
Text: Jesús Gómez
Photos: Courtesy
