Garbage Paints a Grim Picture of Cancun

Tourism circles in Mexico´s Cancun have warned garbage heaps piling up on park benches and across from stores and houses are definitely blurring Cancun´s image as a world-class travel destination.

In the tourist zones, buses keep shuttling passengers to and from lodging facilities on time and hotel areas look clean. However, trash accumulation in different sightseeing spots around the city has rapidly become a huge concern for local hoteliers.

Right now, the 27,851 hotel rooms in the area are averaging an 86.2 percent occupancy rate, with approximately 53,000 tourists in town that churn out extremely large quantities of garbage during their long stays.

Jose Chapur Zahoul, president of the local Hotel Association, said recently the sector continues welcoming sunbathers as usual and cited off-the-record reports about the building of a new sanitary landfill with the participation of municipal authorities.