Michelle Fridman, the Yucatan state tourism secretary, wrote in a Tweet that “the influencers were not paid one single peso. It also wasn’t some half-baked idea but rather part of a strategy included in the plan for recovery from COVID, and if we carefully measure the impact, we estimate we got 200 million hits for a sector that urgently needs promotion.”

Fridman’s office did not respond to requests for comment, but her stance apparently boiled down to ‘any news is good news’ in a state where tourism is vitally important.

Tourist arrivals at airports in Mexico fell by 93.4 % at the worst point in May, and even with projections showing some recovery in the second half of 2020, are expected to end the year 42.8% below 2019 levels. Tourism provides 11 million jobs, directly or indirectly in Mexico.

The Uxmal dispute was just the latest chapter in a bad year for Mexican tourism promotion.

In August, due to disputes over payments and control of the English-language version of the country’s tourism website, its internet page appeared with hilarious mistranslations.

On the VisitMexico.com site, states like Hidalgo and Guerrero apparently got machine-translated as “Noble” and “Warrior.” The Caribbean resort of Tulum somehow became “Jumpsuit.” And the names of other tourist towns were also mangled.