Cancun on the rebound
Sunday, August 5, 2007
MEXICO'S Caribbean coastline is glowing, one-and-a-half years after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Wilma. More than 120 hotels in Mexico's paradise beach resort of Cancun have been transformed into luxury inns.
Along the Riviera Mayan coast, there are more hotels, and a new airport will soon be built near the Mayan ruins in the town of Tulum.
Regional capacity is expected to rise from 40,000 rooms to some 100,000. "Cancun is no longer the Cancun it used to be," says city Mayor Francisco Alor. "It is a cosmopolitan city which is still far from having shown all its advantages."
Cancun has long surpassed its older rival Acapulco, on Mexico's Pacific coast, by a good stretch. Some 800,000 people live in the city, which was mere wilderness 30 years ago, and Alor estimates that some 60,000 to 80,000 new residents arrive every year.
It is not only large hotel chains who are operating new businesses between Cancun and Chetumal, the capital of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, on the border with Belize.
Luxury housing complexes are being built along the coast with its white beaches, lagoons and mangroves, but also in the inland wilderness of the Yucatan peninsula full of underground rivers, caves and Mayan cities.
An atmosphere akin to a gold rush is palpable on the coast. Puerto Aventuras, not far from Playa del Carmen, around 80km south of Cancun, is an example. Until Hurricane Wilma ravaged the area it was a fairly ordinary tourist resort with hotels, golf course and marina. Now the damage has been repaired, but not just that.
"It is as if Wilma had given the resort new life," says real estate agent Isabel Sosa.
The revamp was financed by the many dollars that the wealthy of the world flaunt to have a few years in paradise.
In Cancun too, the hurricane risk has not frightened off investors, but rather spurred them on. Skyscrapers of steel and concrete loom over the sand into the blue Caribbean sky the facilities, which have to be hurricane-proof, house luxury homes geared towards rich Europeans. The region is also trying to crack the Russian market in the hope of luring many wealthy potential investors bound for a stay in warm climes.
Many projects in the area seek to harmonise tourism and everyday life with nature. Tourism is expected to protect nature, not to destroy it.
Costa Rica has been a pioneer in the field for years, and now other countries in Central America and the Caribbean have also jumped onto the "sustainable tourism" bandwagon.
The small, English-speaking Belize which lies between Quintana Roo and Guatemala intends allowing only the construction of three large five-star hotels at the most, according to Prime Minister Said Musa. Everything else in the country's jungle, rivers, Mayan ruins and keys is to remain expensive lodges.DPA
Along the Riviera Mayan coast, there are more hotels, and a new airport will soon be built near the Mayan ruins in the town of Tulum.
Regional capacity is expected to rise from 40,000 rooms to some 100,000. "Cancun is no longer the Cancun it used to be," says city Mayor Francisco Alor. "It is a cosmopolitan city which is still far from having shown all its advantages."
Cancun has long surpassed its older rival Acapulco, on Mexico's Pacific coast, by a good stretch. Some 800,000 people live in the city, which was mere wilderness 30 years ago, and Alor estimates that some 60,000 to 80,000 new residents arrive every year.
It is not only large hotel chains who are operating new businesses between Cancun and Chetumal, the capital of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, on the border with Belize.
Luxury housing complexes are being built along the coast with its white beaches, lagoons and mangroves, but also in the inland wilderness of the Yucatan peninsula full of underground rivers, caves and Mayan cities.
An atmosphere akin to a gold rush is palpable on the coast. Puerto Aventuras, not far from Playa del Carmen, around 80km south of Cancun, is an example. Until Hurricane Wilma ravaged the area it was a fairly ordinary tourist resort with hotels, golf course and marina. Now the damage has been repaired, but not just that.
"It is as if Wilma had given the resort new life," says real estate agent Isabel Sosa.
The revamp was financed by the many dollars that the wealthy of the world flaunt to have a few years in paradise.
In Cancun too, the hurricane risk has not frightened off investors, but rather spurred them on. Skyscrapers of steel and concrete loom over the sand into the blue Caribbean sky the facilities, which have to be hurricane-proof, house luxury homes geared towards rich Europeans. The region is also trying to crack the Russian market in the hope of luring many wealthy potential investors bound for a stay in warm climes.
Many projects in the area seek to harmonise tourism and everyday life with nature. Tourism is expected to protect nature, not to destroy it.
Costa Rica has been a pioneer in the field for years, and now other countries in Central America and the Caribbean have also jumped onto the "sustainable tourism" bandwagon.
The small, English-speaking Belize which lies between Quintana Roo and Guatemala intends allowing only the construction of three large five-star hotels at the most, according to Prime Minister Said Musa. Everything else in the country's jungle, rivers, Mayan ruins and keys is to remain expensive lodges.DPA
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