The Bay of Banderas: Be Here. Be Happy. Be Home
 The Banderas Beat: Special Report
| Banderas Beat - June 17, 2009 (Visit the Beat Archives)
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The Swine Flu may be on the back burner, but tourism efforts are boiling over. In this special edition of Banderas Beat, the second episode of our Be Here. Be Happy. Be Home. series, Laura shows us how Banderas Bay area businesses and the local community are dealing with the recent drop in tourism, which started with the global economic crisis and border drug wars, followed by the swine flu scare that further crippled Mexico tourism industry.
The H1N1 flu issue ravaged Mexico by cutting off tourist dollars. However, this outbreak did not deter some savvy travelers. BanderasNews video journalist, Laura Gelezunas, asked several of these hearty travelers why they chose NOT to cancel or postpone their Puerto Vallarta vacations.
Kim Ruffner, who visits Puerto Vallarta twice a year, said, "It wasn't going to scare us away, 35,000 people in the US die from the regular flu every year, so this little flu wasn't going to stop us from having our vacation... more Americans need to come down and have a great time."
Another undeterred tourist, Amy Anderson commented, "We had booked the trip before the swine flu and even after hearing about it, it seemed like we had more of chance of getting it in Washington state than in PV."
According to Dr. Alejandro Rios, who provided us with valuable insight during the Swine Flu scare, one of the main reasons that the H1N1 Flu outbreak was short-lived in Mexico was due to the Mexican government's timely response in putting preventive measures into place to assure the safety of both citizens and visitors, which have been a step forward in the world-wide effort to decrease the spread of other transmittable diseases.
Now that we have explored the Swine Flu and it's effects on Mexico tourism, let's look at how this crisis has affected the local economy.
In 2008, Mexico's tourism industry beached 13 billion dollars, making it the third largest source of foreign currency. However, today, due to the recent drop in tourism, once bustling Banderas Bay area businesses, stores, shopping centers, taco stands, restaurants and tour companies - both large and small - are struggling to make ends meet.
As Puerto Vallarta and the Banderas Bay area head into 'low season,' the amount of visitors naturally drops off, but with the recent devastating decline in tourism, business owners are finding innovative ways to stay afloat during these economically challenging times.
These efforts, along with the ongoing series of events the city is hosting in an effort to bring tourists back to Puerto Vallarta, including the upcoming free concert featuring Alejandro Fernández and many other world-famous, award-winning musical artists on June 20th, give all of us who live and work here confidence that our city's tourism-driven economy will pick up soon. |
Vallarta Weddings
Vallarta Living | June 2009 
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