The State of Yucatan has launched a Biosecurity Risk Prevention Program for good sanitary practices in the tourism industry.
Following a directive from the Governor of the State of Yucatan, Mauricio Vila Dosal, the State has developed Biosecurity Risk Prevention Certification, a comprehensive program to secure healthy environments for the benefit of visitors and locals.
The certificate is based on similar international models created to prevent the spread of infections and to provide health certainty to the tourism sector and its different actors, inspiring confidence in visitors while protecting the health of Yucatecans.
The program was designed with sustainability and social responsibility in mind, and was created with the support and supervision of Mexico’s Health Secretariat, academic institutions and international organizations. In its first stage, the program is forecasted to reach up to 1,200 people among entrepreneurs and service providers and more than 2,000 members of Crisis Management Teams, benefiting 48,000 employees and generating a social impact for more than 136,000 people.
“Tourism has dramatically changed since this historic episode,” said Michelle Fridman Hirsch, Yucatan’s tourism minister, in a virtual presentation on the program for members of the state tourism industry. “In this new stage of tourism post-COVID, the certainty that we can offer visitors by implementing the best sanitary practices in the destination will play a fundamental role in travel decisions.”
To obtain the certificate, it is mandatory for each company to create a Crisis Management Team responsible for transmitting information to the organization and to have proof that the team has taken part in the Certification training seminars and complies with 85 percent of the control points established in the program checklist. The certificate will be available at no cost to all tourism service companies.
“The state of Yucatan is already a benchmark in terms of security and good practices, not only in Mexico but worldwide,” added Fridman Hirsch. “In this sense, we now seek to be a leader in biosecurity measures for tourism. In Yucatan, we prepared the state to face this crisis, adapting and rebuilding the tourism offer in accordance with the latest global trends. During the last months, we have worked tirelessly, hand in hand with representatives of the local and national tourism industry, to preserve, rebuild and prepare our tourism industry to face an unprecedented crisis.”
Invitations for companies to register for certification will take place from May 28, 2020 at certificaturismo.yucatan.gob.mx.
