In Tulum, more and more hotel, restaurant, and construction workers are packing their bags. Many of them came from Tabasco, Chiapas, Veracruz, Mexico City, and other places searching for the “Tulum dream,” but today they are returning home with debts and no jobs.
This was reported by the digital media outlet NotiTulum, which explained that the cause of this exodus has a name: the so-called “solidarity leave,” a new form of disguised dismissal.
“They told me it was a one-week unpaid solidarity leave, but it’s already been four weeks and they haven’t called me back,” said Miguel, a waiter from the hotel zone. “I’d rather return to Palenque. At least there I have somewhere to sleep without paying rent.”
The same pattern keeps repeating: with low season occupancy rates at only 15%, hotels and restaurants are sending up to 80% of their staff on unpaid leave, without a return date or compensation. It is essentially a dismissal without calling it by its real name.
Thousands arrived between 2021 and 2023. The construction of the Tren Maya and the hotel boom attracted more than 25,000 workers from other states to Tulum. But now they face the harsh reality of not being able to pay rent, while their salaries are no longer enough even to buy food.
“I’d rather leave. Here, if you don’t work, you don’t eat, and if you do work, everything goes toward rent,” said Karina, a housekeeper who already bought her ticket back to Villahermosa, Tabasco.
The exodus is already noticeable: small restaurants are closing, public transportation is nearly empty, and houses and rooms display “For Rent” signs everywhere. Tulum promised better opportunities, but today it is pushing people out. And with every worker who leaves, a piece of the Tulum that once worked also disappears — the one that welcomed tourists properly, built homes and hotels, and kept the city running.
“The magical town is losing both its magic and its people,” concluded the digital outlet.
As previously reported by REPORTUR.mx, the Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) is currently in talks with eight of the 15 hotels that reported zero profits in order to negotiate compensation payments for workers. Meanwhile, in Tulum, workers at the Kore Tulum began a strike after the closure of both that hotel and the former Parnassus Cancún, leaving employees without severance pay, salaries, or benefits.
Some online commenters argued that Tulum’s rapid growth was unsustainable and eventually led to the current crisis. Others blamed overpriced services, corruption, insecurity, excessive tourism costs, and poor treatment of visitors for damaging the destination’s reputation.
Several people also criticized local authorities, police corruption, expensive taxi fares, and the rising cost of living, while others defended environmental concerns and argued that large tourism developments mainly benefit foreign corporations rather than local communities.
Despite differing opinions, many agreed that the workers and families who moved to Tulum chasing better opportunities are now suffering the consequences of the city’s economic slowdown.
Source: reportur
