LOCATION REPORT MEXICO
MORE TO MEXICO...
From going local in Acapulco, to modern masterpieces in Monterrey, Mexico offers an
increasingly interesting array of hotels away from the traditional hotspots of Cancun
and Los Cabos. Louise Rodgers recently returned to the country she last visited as a
backpacker to see how things have changed...
here is so much more to Mexico than Cancun, with casino, supper club, pool and rooftop bar – subsequently
T
yet few travellers stray beyond this once pristine became Castro’s headquarters (he closed the casino but, after
stretch of Caribbean coastline. Until now that is. worker’s protests, was forced to open it again a month).
Travelling both to and through Mexico is becoming easier, When relations between the United States and Cuba
and throughout the country hotel developers and investors plummeted shortly after, and all American hotels on the
are gearing up to greet a new generation of visitors, boosted island were nationalised, Hilton brought Brandy to the newest
by a major influx of cash from the government of Felipe up-and-coming resort town in the Americas – Acapulco
Calderon. – to manage Las Brisas. And Acapulco reigned supreme as
A major new government-funded infrastructure plan, the playground of the rich and famous throughout the next
launched in July 2007, will see US$50 billion every year for three decades. However by the 1990s, Cancun was causing
the next five years invested in the country’s ports, airports, a serious dent in Acapulco’s income as political events and
roads and railways making travelling between different interests caused funds to flow towards the south-eastern
tourist destinations more accessible. Behind this investment peninsula of Yucatan and away from the south-western
is the national government’s desire to capitalise on Mexico’s erstwhile ‘Pearl of the Pacific’. Now Cancun has the highest
tourism potential. Currently the third most important concentration of five star hotels in the country.
economic activity in the country, representing 7.7% of GDP, But Acapulco is poised for a comeback. Leading Mexican
Mexico expects to achieve a 35% increase in the number of boutique hotel developer Habita Hotels has set its sights
international tourists, to almost 29 million, by 2012. on the original Riviera and where Habita leads, others
In recent years major government planned developments will inevitably follow. Not only is the talented trio due to
like Cancun and Los Cabos have been key to Mexico’s complete a thorough renovation and updating of a 1950s
tourism revenue, but now this focus is shifting to the States classic, Boca Chica, but it is also building an architecturally
of Baha California and Sinaloa, close to the US border. In striking five-star property high on one end of the horseshoe
Baha California Ken Shuttleworth’s Make architects are that is a Acapulco Bay, destined to become a contemporary
masterplanning a multiple resort development which will design classic and a potent symbol of Acapulco’s twenty-first
equal anything on the Caribbean coast. Highlighted by the century revival. Not to be outdone, the original classic Las
government as the most important tourism development in Brisas has spent $20 million on a facelift which restores this
the last 25 years, the Siniloa project plans to create 44,200 icon of hospitality to pristine condition.
rooms, of which 16,850 will be in hotels and the rest, condos The relentless development of the Caribbean coast has
and villas aimed at retirees from North America. reached a crisis point in Tulum, just south of Cancun.
In the midst of one of the biggest glitches in the history After Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the Mexican Government
of the free market economy, the irony is that Mexican took stock and in 2007 introduced legislation to limit
tourism owes much to Fidel Castro. Before the 1958 Cuban development that adversely affects Mexico’s coastal
Revolution, Havana, with its racy nightlight, sexy cabaret wetlands and mangroves. Such is its determination to take
shows and pulsing Creole spirit, was where the world’s jet- environmental issues seriously that in October 2008 the
setters went to party. A tourist infrastructure was established federal Environmental protection Secretariat threatened
and Castro himself celebrated the dawn of his first New Year to demolish more than a dozen hotels it claims were built
as President in Havana’s Hilton, managed at the time by a illegally in Tulum. The controversy continues and new hotels,
character called Brandstetter (‘Brandy’), a former US colonel. such as the Rosewood Mayakoba, are keen to emphasise their
The Havana Hilton – then Latin America’s tallest and largest, environmental credentials.
FOR MORE LOCATION REPORTS VISIT WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM LOCATION REPORT MEXICO MARCH / APRIL 2009 043
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