Regional focus
handcrafted doors – a nod to the grand Mayan ruins nearby. Even more strikingly, Carbone notes the presence of an “in-house shaman” who can perform rituals for more spiritually minded customers. At the same time, both Carbone and Aceveda agree that success also lies in opening more mass-market hotels. Certainly, this makes sense given the growing influence of domestic travellers. They may only make half as much as their American cousins, after all, but Mexicans now contribute 88 of every 100 pesos spent by tourists in their native land, as reported by the OECD studies on tourism. With that in mind, giants are eager to balance Nekajui-style extravagance with more modest affairs. And from Tru by Hilton (in Mexico) to AC by Marriott (in Costa Rica), there is plenty of evidence of this in practice. In the long term, Aceveda adds that the region could soon see the rise of “bleisure” – where guests answer business emails in the morning, then hit the beach until sundown.
Regional risks
In October 2021, a holiday in the sun quickly turned into a nightmare. After a gunfight broke out between rival drug gangs in Tulum, two tourists died in the crossfire. One of the victims, an Indian woman who lived in America, had posted a photo of herself on Instagram just two days before she died. Violence here
is not especially rare: according to a recent report by the Washington Post, Tulum registered 65 murders between January and September 2021, an 80.5% increase to the same period in 2020. Similar scenes occur in other corners of the region: in 2019, an American doctor was murdered during a fly-fishing expedition in Belize. In 2020, a Costa Rican security guard was arrested for killing another American. All of this raises difficult questions for Central American hospitality. To put it bluntly: might gangs and the drug trade stymie the region’s growth? Though he concedes that stability is vital to generating foreign investment and financing – and getting tourists through hotel lobbies – Aceveda is sanguine. Among other things, he points to the fact that Marriott recently opened its 300th property in the Caribbean and Latin America, with more planned soon.
Carbone makes a similar point, noting that robust security measures can help travellers feel safe. And there is little evidence that the bloodshed of recent years is dampening investment. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, Hilton has plans for ten openings across Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet with murder rates persistently high from Honduras to El Salvador, there are risks that locals will struggle while tourism soars. Given everything people here have suffered, from Hernán Cortés onwards, that would be a pity. ●
_RADISSON RED VIENNA
FROM LONDON HEATHROW TO JOHANNESBURG TO BRUSSELS VISIT US AT
RADISSONHOTELS.COM/RED OR GET IN CONTACT VIA
EMEADEVELOPMENT@RADISSONHOTELS.COM
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com 21
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