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 Editorials | At Issue | November 2005 
Life is a Beach? Not in Cancun
 Marla Dickerson - LATimes
| | A view of the sandless beaches of Cancun on Nov. 24, 2005 after being badly hit last October by a Catergory 4 Hurricane Wilma. Mexico's Tourism Secretary announced that although popular resort points like Cancun and Cozumel may take longer to be fully repaired, much of Mexico's storm-battered Caribbean coast will be ready for tourists on Christmas holidays, with 75 percent of the infrastructure repaired by Dec. 15. (Israel Leal) |
This resort city was built on crystalline beaches, turquoise waves and people like Margarita Rojas, who has seen once-sleepy Cancún become one of Mexico's fastest-growing regions.
Born in northern Mexico, Rojas vacationed here in 1993 and decided to stay, making a career of assisting tour groups for some of the area's swankiest hotels. She and her musician husband, Javier, have forged a good living. Visitor dollars have paid for their spacious home, a couple of cars, and private school for their two young children.
But last month's Hurricane Wilma dealt a ferocious blow to Mexico's most important tourist destination. The Category 4 storm packed 145-mph winds that smashed hotels, pounded restaurants, bars and shops, and obliterated miles of Cancún's world-famous beaches.
Some of the damage could take months, even years, to repair. That's a huge worry for Rojas and the 750,000 people of Cancún, virtually all of whom depend on the tourist trade.
`THERE'S NO BEACH'
''People come to Cancún for the beautiful beach and the sun, and now there's no beach,'' Rojas said. ``Who is going to pay hundreds of dollars a night to look at this?''
A lot is riding on the answer. Tourism is one of Mexico's most important industries. It's the nation's third-largest source of foreign currency, behind petroleum and remittances from Mexicans living abroad. It's one of the few reliable engines of job growth. And it's powered largely by Cancún.
Nearly 40 percent of the $11 billion spent by international visitors to Mexico last year came from Cancún and the so-called Riviera Maya immediately to the south, which includes smaller resort cities such as Playa del Carmen and the Mayan ruins of Tulum.
So crucial to Mexico's prosperity is this sparkling 75-mile stretch of Caribbean coastline that analysts say fallout from Wilma could trim as much as a quarter of a percentage point from the nation's fourth-quarter economic growth. Based on 2004 data, Mexico is losing an average of $11.5 million a day in foreign visitor spending.
Restoring Cancún has become a priority for President Vicente Fox, who is coordinating rebuilding efforts with state and local officials. The government is cutting reconstruction red tape, extending small-business loans, deferring taxes for entrepreneurs who suffered property damage, and marshaling armies of public utility workers to repair the shredded infrastructure.
In contrast to Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, when portions of Cancún remained without basic services for months, water and power were restored to many areas within days after Wilma. The speedy response was a reflection of Mexico's growing experience in handling big disasters, as well as a recognition of Cancún's economic clout, according to Félix González Cantú, the governor of the southern state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún is situated.
''We called in the cavalry this time,'' said González Cantú, who said that 4,400 electricity workers arrived within days to repair downed power lines in the region.
CLEANUP ASSISTANCE
Thousands of locals as well as workers from across Mexico are pouring in to Cancún to assist with the cleanup, transforming this laid-back tropical paradise into a humming construction site. At the Plaza Zócalo shopping area in the hotel zone, vendors spruced up their battered souvenir carts on a recent afternoon while navy troops patrolled in the 88-degree heat.
Dusty construction workers streamed in and out of a neighboring convenience store, searching for a quick snack amid the clatter of hammers and buzzing drills from nearby buildings. Up the road, squadrons of waiters, cooks, maids and bellhops swabbed moldy hotel rooms and carted debris away.
Only about 12 percent of Cancún's 27,000 hotel rooms are currently inhabitable, a figure that González Cantú predicts will jump to about 80 percent by Dec. 15, given the flurry of construction activity.
The Riviera Maya, which was spared the worst of Wilma's wrath, has 60 percent of its 24,000 rooms intact, with nearly full recovery forecast by the end of the year. Tourism authorities are planning a media blitz next month to announce the area's comeback just in time for the winter high season.
But some insurance experts and tourism veterans say that those estimates appear too rosy. Lisa Hoehn, a regional vice president of Passageways Travel Inc., one of the Midwest's largest travel agencies, recently returned from a visit to Cancún. She said she won't recommend that her clients stay in the hotel zone until at least next spring, and she said she would book only select resorts in the Riviera Maya.
Hoehn said travelers to Cancún want pristine beaches, greenery, good shopping and vibrant nightlife in addition to spiffy hotel rooms.
''It's hard to find a palm tree with a top. . . . My gosh, Señor Frog's isn't even open,'' she said, referring to a popular Cancún watering hole.
The bill for repairing the beachfront along Cancún's hotel row could reach $250 million, and it could take as long as three years, although many believe that some serviceable repair can be done more quickly and cheaply.
But the work almost certainly won't be completed in time for the first flocks of so-called snowbirds this year. |
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