Quintana Roo
Quintana RooBy: glenn pero
E-mail: [email protected]
Quintana Roo, Mexico has become an internationally acclaimed tourist development area over the past six years. This may be a difficult concept to grasp considering the states economic condition at the end of the 20th, and the first decade of the 21st century. The current status of a tourism haven was not easily accomplished. It took many years of cooperative tourism planning amongst the state, national government officials, and most importantly, the local communities of the areas being developed. In the early 1990�s, the country of Mexico was searching for untapped tourism resources. The purpose of this search was because popular tourist destinations, like Cancun, were reaching their saturation points and becoming commonplace destinations to the global tourism market. At this point in time, the country�s tourism industry was lacking direction and focus (Levin 5). Top tourism officials were beginning to realize that the �traditional products of sun, sea, and sand were losing inherent value in a continually more competitive market� (Levin 3). Essentially, the country was losing the upper-end of the consumer market, which had greater purchasing power. For a few years, Mexico�s tourism officials tried to rejuvenate many of their popular tourist destinations through various marketing strategies and additional funding. This was an attempt to prevent decline in tourist arrivals. The rejuvenation process proved to be difficult as many of these areas had no additional land to build upon, and were experiencing environmental problems due to overdevelopment. High profile tourists began to seek other international destinations; and as overall tourist numbers began to drop, tourism officials and other multi-national corporations were searching for other areas to develop. The answer lied in the state of Quintana Roo. Quintana Roo is situated on the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. �The population, except for the concentrations in Chetumal, the state capital, and a few towns, [was] dispersed in hamlets and villages� (Encyc. Br. Online). This undeveloped land was situated outside of the already developed beach resorts that dominated the Mexican tourism industry. The reason for the isolation of parts of the Quintana Roo region was due to the fact that there were not well developed roads or communication linkages with sophisticated regions. Quintana Roo contained valuable untapped resources, such as: the many miles of white, sandy beach shoreline along the Riviera Maya, traditional Mayan communities, the Great Maya Reef and intriguing ancient Mayan ruins (Internet 1). The significance of Quintana Roo�s undisturbed and natural areas was crucial to Mexico�s tourism industry as other leading tourism countries were turning to a more environmentally based �ecotourism� (Daltabuit and Pi-Sunyer 43). The discovery of these untapped regions gave the Mexican tourism industry the resources necessary to attract this new tourism market. In 2001, �The Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo (FONATUR)� announced the allocation of 500 million pesos to continue the development of ecologically based tourism in the Quintana Roo region (Latin Am 17). There were some previous �ecotourism� developments in the area; but...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.