Sustainable Tourism: Cancun And Mexico

Sustainable tourism is now recognized when tourism is well planned, developed and managed in a controlled, integrated and sustainable manner. With this approach, tourism can generate substantial economic benefits to an area/region, without creating any serious environmental or social problems. Tourism’s resources will be conserved for continuous use in the future.

Therefore this report covers the issues, approaches, techniques and principles for tourism planning at the national and regional level of planning and management of tourism at the national level because Cancun development both involved the national and regional planning.

Cancun is one of the most important tourist destinations in Mexico. From being a fishing village 30 years ago, today it a well visited resort. Cancun is located at Yucatan peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Cancun is connected by bridges to the mainland and has a 20km Hotel Zone which is about 200m wide with shores on the Caribbean Sea, and also enclose is large lagoon.

There are over 150 hotels and resorts in Cancun with more than 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants and most of it all welcome families. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily.[citation needed] The Hotel Zone of Cancun is shaped like a 7 with bridges on each end connecting to the mainland

Beside Cancun, is the Mayan Riviera and check out Playa del Carmen, Xcaret and Xel-Ha. The ancient Mayan ports which is now been converted into modern-day paradises. Also nearby is Tulum, a fascinating archaeological zone by the sea. It was the only walled city built by the Mayans.

Source: http://www.visitmexico.com/cancun

The Development Plan and Policy

Mexico national tourism plan was to expand the international tourism industry which by 1960 the government approved the project to promote the international tourism industry to the less unknown region and local rural areas. The Mexican government choose 5 new resorts for development because the main tourist attraction then was just the natural environment and main historic sites. This bought about the creation of Cancun which was part of Mexico’s long-term national development strategy

Cancun actually plan was first developed in the 1967 by the government under the Mexico National Tourism Plan but development did not start until 1970 when FONATUR, the Mexican Federal Government’s agency in charge of fomenting national came in place

The initial Tourism policy was articulated around the interrelated sets of objectives

Open up a road from Puerto Juarez to the island,

Design a Master Development Plan and

Build a provisional air strip

The Master Plan came about three items

To build tourism zone where there will be no residential area surrounding it, like a tourism passage with hotels, shopping centres and golf courses installed

To build a residential zone for the permanent residents

Building an international airport atone side on the mainland south of the island

The tourism zone plan development which was divided into three phases. The first comprised the area from Bahia de Mujeres to Punta Cancun and the coast up to the inner limit of Bojorquez Lagoon; the second phase ran from Bojorquez Lagoon to Punta Nizuc, and the third from Punta Nizuc south, to the limits of the territorial reserve.

There are four distinct phases in Cancun’s development, characterized by times of growth and crisis: From 1969 to 1975;

From 1976 to 1983;

From 1984 to 1989;

From 1990 to 2007

At some time during these periods of growth, seemingly insurmountable problems darkened expectations for the area- a lack of regular flights, the 1982 devaluation, natural disasters, the collapse of North American tourism due to the terrorist attacks of September 11 and, more recently the hurricane Wilma back in October 2005. Nevertheless, the city has demonstrated its ability to bounce back on each occasion.

By 1976, Cancun was firmly established as a tourism destination: 18,000 inhabitants, stable migratory patterns, more than 5,000 jobs, 1,500 hotel rooms and 100,000 visitors in the winter 76-77 season.

The sudden spurt of growth prior to 1982 caused an ecological imbalance in the lagoon system, requiring corrective measures. From 1983 to 1988, Cancun registered explosive growth with more than 12,000 hotel rooms and another 11,000 projected or under construction and more than 200,000 inhabitants.

From 1989 to date, Cancun has been the nation’s most dynamic city. It contributes a large percentage of Mexico’s tourism-related revenue and accounts for much of Quintana Roo gross domestic product. There are currently more than 500,000 inhabitants in the urban area. Cancun has become the country’s largest tourism resort and is the most prosperous city in the Yucatán Peninsula. It is also the Caribbean’s premier destination, surpassing even the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

Strategic for Managing resorts

Tourism as extensively damage the lagoon, the sand dunes as to the extinction of species of animal and fish and also the rain forest which surround s the island as been destroyed. Until recently after 20 year the Mexico government decided to limit project along the coast to prevent further damage to the island.

Environmental problem: Deforestation. This is caused by the over construction of hotels, restaurant and other tourism catering facilities and it also causes wildlife destruction and further environmental damages

Impact and effect: medium and regulation

Type of measure: regulatory standard. No regulatory body or law for controlling tourism development

To achieve the management and control of Cancun some sustainable indicator have to be consider

Carrying Capacity

Cancun’s carrying capacity has been exceeded to a point where the benefits of tourism are beginning to significantly diminish. Therefore the government established a carry capacity standard. The carrying capacity of Cancun can be defined as the threshold of tourist activity beyond which facilities are saturated (physical capacity), the environment is degraded (environmental capacity), or visitor enjoyment is diminished (perceptual or psychological capacity). Among these three capacities the latter two are the most relevant to Cancun’s current situation.

Regulatory improvement

In Cancun, the government of Mexico established local and regional zoning laws that restrict development and bans development in conservation zones of the Cancun-Tulum corridor, locate in the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo

Land use

Formally, development is guided by a master plan affecting land use and building patterns. The plan limits the number of floors of hotels, guarantees public access to beaches, and preserves the five mile zone separating the tourist zone from the City of Cancun in the mainland

Actions Taken for Competitiveness

Product development action: how to make attractions better

Market development

Re-launch of Cancun

Quality assessment

Managing and Co-ordinating actions

The Competitiveness Program of Cancun as been considers into 5 important components:

Product Development: Physical Recovery of the Tourism Product is based on rescue and rehabilitation projects, such as the rescue of beaches, ecological rescue and lagoon maintenance, restoring and the rehabilitation of the central zone of Cancun city, reforestation and signage, remodelling of the Convention Centre, and other important modernization and rehabilitation programs

Re-Launch of Cancun: Have as its purpose a qualitative transformation of the city’s image and the adding of new values. In this section, projects are being developed, such as Puerto Cancun as a large international yachting attraction, a multimodal transport terminal in order to define a new policy in municipal public transport, a sub-aquatic museum and artificial reefs, a project to construct a race car dome, and enlarging the Cancun airport.

Quality Assessment: Raise Service and Quality Levels: through the recognition of the workforce’s efforts, collaboration among different tourism business sectors and the facilitation and systematic improvement surveillance of visitor experience. This includes specific actions such as the Mexican Caribbean Quality Tourism Norms, tourist safety, facilitation of immigration and customs systems in the airport, utilizing protected areas, and a centre of business linkage.

Market Development: New Marketing for Cancun will attend to the problems of Cancun’s image, and includes actions such as new promotional and marketing campaigns, which revalue the destination’s attractiveness, as well as the development of new tourist products, principally other than the sun and sea niche.

Managing and Co-ordinating actions: Long-Term Planning for the State of Quintana Roo in the Year 2025: considers that in the next few decades, tourism as economic development will consolidate around the tail end of the state.

Conclusion

From 1989 to date, Cancun has been the nation’s most dynamic city. It contributes a large percentage of Mexico’s tourism-related revenue and accounts for much of Quintana Roo gross domestic product. There are currently more than 500,000 inhabitants in the urban area. Cancun has become the country’s largest tourism resort and is the most prosperous city in the Yucatán Peninsula. It is also the Caribbean’s premier destination, surpassing even the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

Mexico’s National Trust Fund for Tourism Development