Two years after the devastating impact of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, the popular beach resort in Guerrero is struggling to slowly recover, amid reconstruction efforts and a recent wave of violence, local businessmen told EFE this Thursday.
According to businessmen, the general recovery reaches 60%, since there are still many companies to reopen, some have disappeared, several hotels remain closed or with insufficient rooms, and although restaurants offer services, many are not yet completely finished.
The nautical sector is one of the most affected, since all the boats were lost, but less than 50 percent have been able to recover, which has served to pay expenses and bring a little money home.
Restaurant businessman Jesús Zamora Cervantes recognized that the emblematic Mexican Pacific port is recovering little by little thanks to the joint efforts of its inhabitants, workers and authorities.
“And since we have been operating for quite some time now, tourism began to flow again, the love they have for Acapulco has been a fundamental part of its recovery, because it is constant,” he commented in statements to EFE.
The businessman pointed out that the infrastructure is what is not 100% recovered, especially because the damage was in the millions, and that small and medium-sized businesses were the most affected, since there was no government support or bank loans.
“For SMEs and businesses it is very complicated because they did not have any tax subsidy. Here in the federal zone, the federal zone use and enjoyment tax was paid, even though no work was done during all those months. All taxes, operating licenses, water, everything was charged normally, there was no condonation, no program for the hurricane,” Cervantes detailed.
After the onslaught of Hurricane Otis in 2023, which hit the city as a category 5 hurricane, Acapulco once again suffered the impact of another hurricane, John, in 2024, which forced the city of nearly one million inhabitants to start almost from scratch in the reconstruction work.
Violence on the rise
Tourism authorities in the state of Guerrero have indicated that two years ago, after Hurricane Otis, all available rooms were lost: from having more than 20,000 rooms it went to zero; and currently, in Acapulco there are more than 16,200 rehabilitated of the 290 hotels, that is, 82% of the total capacity.
Another problem that has aggravated the situation of the tourist destination is the violence that has been experienced in these two years: homicides, confrontations, robberies, kidnappings, extortions and collection of fees continue to affect Acapulco and further complicate its recovery.
Given this, a large number of companies, businesses and investors have withdrawn from the port, despite the fact that security authorities from the federal and state governments have implemented numerous operations, such as arrests of the main generators of violence.
The annual index of the Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice for 2024 determined that of the 50 most violent cities in the world, 20 are in Mexico, and Acapulco is among them.
According to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SENSP), in the first half of 2025 the state of Guerrero registered 736 intentional homicides, sixth in the country, and in the case of Acapulco, 319 murders were reported.
With information from EFE.
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