Mexican Caribbean Harbors Hopes in Acapulco’s Tourism Marketplace

The Mexican Caribbean was the most talked-about travel destination in Acapulco’s Tourism Marketplace –now ranking as Mexico’s premier travel tradeshow and the seventh largest all over the world- and officials are now hoping to see hotel fares rise as a result of it, said Artemio Santos, tourism secretary in the state of Quintana Roo.

According to Mr. Santos, state authorities made the most of the event to plead the federal government for further funds to be used in a study about tourism environmental impact on beaches. “Because we know all along that SEMARNAT is going to turn down the proposal made by the Cancun Mayor’s Office,” he warned.

The Mexican Caribbean delegation to the Tourism Marketplace was made up of 350 members who carried out as many as 4,000 business appointments and contacts. It was headed by Gov. Joaquin Hendricks Diaz and the chiefs of the state’s five trusteeships, alongside presidents of local hotel associations.

Both federal and state officials signed an agreement aimed at making the two sides pick up half the tab of the environmental impact study that seeks to give restoration certificates to all beaches in Quintana Roo.

In Mr. Santos’s opinion, it’ll be tough and tardy for federal authorities to greenlight the Study on Environmental Impact or Macromia, -as it is known locally- given the number of projects it deals with.

”We must and we will conduct another research study on environmental impact because we’re racing against time here. I don’t want to sound dull, but it’s going to be hard for SEMARNAT to authorize a project that seems to be so out of step with its own interests.”