TUCSON, Ariz. — At this time of the year, the beaches of Puerto Peñasco are usually brimming with families and vendors selling trinkets and snacks to visitors. Hotels fill to capacity, and spending at its many bars and restaurants spikes as the U.S.-Mexico border region celebrates Semana Santa, or Holy Week.

It’s the busiest time of the year for the beach city, also known as Rocky Point and located on the Sea of Cortez, about an hour’s drive south of the Arizona-Mexico border. 

Tourism officials expected 120,000 visitors from Mexico and the U.S. to descend on Puerto Peñasco — twice the number of its permanent population — during the weeklong holiday that starts Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday.

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Instead, the city’s long, sandy beaches are deserted, hotels sit mostly empty, and bars and restaurants are shut indefinitely.

“I closed … about March 20,” Jose Torres said. “But right now, it’s our busiest season. There’s no stopping since March 1 and usually goes on until about June. March and April are our strongest months.”

For 14 years, Torres has owned Boo Bar on the Malecón, the city’s popular pier lined with shops, restaurants and large open spaces. Nearly 90% of his sales come from tourists, he said.

Across Mexico, cities normally empty during Holy Week as residents travel to their hometowns to visit family, or flock to the country’s beaches, rivers and lakes. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, a large number of Mexicans head north for the week, spending millions of dollars at U.S. businesses. 

As COVID-19 sweeps the globe, local and federal governments have issued stay-at-home orders and restricted travel. Tourism is not considered an essential reason to travel. Those restrictions have dampened Semana Santa this year, historically one of the busiest travel periods along the border.

“The closure of bridges and the other ports of entry to non-essential, non-industrial traffic means that roughly $95 million of retail sales are at risk in El Paso, Texas, alone,” said Tom Fullerton, an economist at the University of Texas at El Paso. 

During Semana Santa, an additional 100,000 cars and 100,000 pedestrians typically cross the border from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, on top of regular traffic. Mexican shoppers leave behind an additional $8.5 million in retail sales in El Paso during the holiday period, Fullerton said. 

With stores closed and the traffic at crossings reduced, it’s a lot different this year.

US-Mexico border has been closed to non-essential travel since March 21

The United States and Mexico agreed March 21 to close the border to non-essential travel to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

This week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency in charge of enforcing the travel restrictions, warned visitors to stay away unless they had an essential reason.

“Historically, the Easter holiday is one of the busiest at the Arizona ports of entry,” CBP officials said. “CBP officers and agriculture specialists continue securing the borders, facilitating trade and processing essential travel.”

CBP data from Good Friday showed that wait times at most border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border are down significantly, at a time when the numbers normally rise, ahead of Easter Sunday.

In addition to the travel restrictions, the U.S. and Mexican customs agencies have announced a series of closures or reduced hours at several ports of entry, affecting commercial and passenger traffic.

In Nogales, Arizona, the pedestrian crossing used mostly by Mexican shoppers is closed indefinitely, the two customs agencies announced last week. 

“It’s just a sign of the times with this health emergency that we’re all facing,” said Bruce Bracker, the chairman of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors in Nogales.

More than 40 businesses in the historic downtown area have shut down as COVID-19, and now the closure of the border crossing, keep customers away. Most had to lay off employees. 

If travel restrictions didn’t already keep most Mexican shoppers away from U.S. stores, the weakening of the peso will. 

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Mexico’s currency has lost nearly a third of its value in the economic meltdown caused by the pandemic, Fullerton said. The unfavorable exchange rate will discourage even more Mexican shoppers from crossing, even for essential reasons, he added.

Fullerton, the UTEP economist, said he expects a rise in bankruptcies on both sides of the border as businesses take a hit — not just from lost Semana Santa sales, but also from the prolonged closures as the two economies enter into a recession.

Small businesses in the U.S. such as those in Nogales can apply for federal and state relief in the shape of loans and grants, and some of their employees are paid during this crisis.

That’s on top of stimulus-spending checks and increased unemployment resources for U.S. workers.

Mexico doesn’t have the financial ability to replicate the U.S. government’s action. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been roundly criticized for his response to the pandemic. 

His plan to get the country’s economy back on track failed to take into account the private sector, including the small businesses that make up the backbone of Mexico’s economy. 

“At this point it appears that (the Mexican government) is playing catch up with a lot of the measures enacted by the U.S. government,” Fullerton said. “So any response will be delayed and potentially that will cause the recession to go longer.”

Layoffs abound in Puerto Peñasco, a traditional tourism hot spot in Mexico

In Puerto Peñasco, more than 5,300 workers have been laid off, according to tourism officials, as hotels trimmed their staff and restaurants and bars shut down. 

Maria Eugenia Zacatelco Montiel owns EcoFun Rentals, a boat tour and water activity rental business in the city since 2012. Normally, her phone would be buzzing during Semana Santa, she said, and she would have to schedule additional boat tours to meet demand.

She employs 24 people at her business. Since she closed on March 20, she has laid off all but 10, a decision she called “horrible.” Her remaining employees help her maintain the boats and equipment, in anticipation of when the business will reopen.

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“Everybody will be back, as soon as this is over and as needed, that was the agreement,” she said. “That is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

Torres, the owner of Boo Bar, said he had to lay off his 28 employees and freeze plans to hire more workers. 

While Mexico has yet to announce any plans to help out businesses, some state governments have taken action. In Sonora, the governor announced in March a series of zero-interest loans for small businesses with fewer than 50 workers.

Torres said he has already applied for the loan. The maximum amount he’s eligible to receive, based on the number of his employees, is 50,000 pesos, or about $2,100. 

“It’s not enough to pay employees, so a lot of businesses like mine decided to close, and those who can and are able to are supporting their employees a little more,” he said. 

Torres said he’s still paying for his employees’ benefits and is providing them with a monthly salary as long as he is able to “or until this is over.”

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Hector Vasquez del Mercado, president of the Puerto Peñasco Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the pandemic will take a long-lasting toll on shops and businesses.

“April accounts a little over 10% of all revenue that Peñasco generates the whole year,” he said. “If we have more than 2 million visitors a year, we’re talking about losing out on 200,000 visitors that didn’t come to Peñasco just in April.”

Overall, the bureau estimates businesses in the city will lose nearly $10 million in revenue this month. And that’s if the restrictions to contain COVID-19 don’t go longer.

“We’re asking people that normally travel to Peñasco not to visit us during this time,” Vasquez del Marcado said. “But once this is all over, they’ll be more than welcome. We’ll be waiting for them with open arms.” 

Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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