Printed in La Voz de Michoacan, July 22, 2013
By Victor M. Alvarado
They want the resources, OCV asks for “Más promoción”
The Double tax of sewerage and sanitation should be used for that purpose
The hotel sector of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo proposed that the imposed double tax that they pay for sanitation and sewerage should be used for the tourist promotion of this tourist destination, as intended.
This from, a counterproposal to mayor Eric Fernandez Ballesteros´s announcement last week that this year they will not be able to pay the local budget for tourist promotion to the Office of Conventions and Visitors (OCV) of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.
Angel Cruz Escudero, President of the OCV of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, declared that the consequences of not receiving this payment, “is that we will not be able to have the promotion and advertising that we want and need.”
Cruz Escudero remarked that when you are not showing growth, and he said that in fact Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo was suffering from negative growth, whether you have the resources or not, you must find ways to move forward with the help from different levels of government.
Cruz Escudero, who is also Vice President of the Hotel Association of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, mentioned that he will be having another meeting with the mayor, in which the OCV will make a counterproposal. The officers of the association have discussed that they will propose to Mayor Fernandez Ballesteros that the city pay, “anything they can, if not the resource that had been planned, something at least so we don´t go forward with zeros.”
Cruz Escudero also pointed out that the hotels continue to pay the double water tax, and that it is not a resource that the city is not receiving, they are still receiving it and they should be able to give some support. Hoteliers are paying this double tax for sanitation and sewerage, and what we want is to see how the mayor can help us, because they are receiving every month this double tax. And he reiterated, that the resource that they are asking for has always been one that they pay to the city, and that they continue to pay every month and it is money that is reaching the municipality.
The only solution is that, “With more tourists arriving, the coffers of City Hall will be better,” and the destination in general, said Cruz Escudero, the OCV President and Vice President of the Hotel Association of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.
