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.
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.
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.
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