6th Posting

There is a paradox existing between many five star resorts with every luxury imaginable, and the local neighborhoods down the street where families are living in blatant poverty. A place that exemplifies this is Cancun, Mexico. When tourists vacation in Cancun, most of them do not leave the Zona Hotelera, which is the long strip of hotels, resorts and expensive stores. The resorts are designed so no American feels far from home with  McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food places, along with anything else they need. The Zona is located just one block from a very distinct dividing line. “More than 44 million Mexican families are living in poverty. They literally have nothing, no clean water, no money for food, and no clean living conditions. About 15 million of the 44 million live in what we would call extreme poverty, with no food and nothing to sustain them. (Cancuncanuck.com, Blog Action Day-Poverty in Mexico).” “Going down Avenue Kukulkan, a long strip of golf courses and polluted lagoons, you come along Km. 0, the point at which the scenery begins to change. Still there are the multinationals like Pizza Hut and OfficeMax. The hotels are gone, as well as the beach and most of the gringos. Here are the markets and smaller ‘quainter’ restaurants. Here is where the tourists would come to experience some ‘culture.’ Beyond this is unknown to them. Here, in these neighborhoods, there is often no fresh water or electricity, and no sewage treatment plants. The groundwater is contaminated from sewage runoff, so self-sufficiency is hopeless. Education is often ignored in the face of poverty, and drugs have become a useful response to the boredom that goes along with it. The lagoons are becoming polluted by leakage from the hotels. The very attractions that support the infrastructure of Cancun, the beaches and the sea, are perishing under the weight of capitalism. This means that Cancun is dying, and with it goes the whole population of Cancun. Those who have built Cancun will surely go down with it, while only those who profit will escape, unharmed. (upsidedownworld.org, The Real Cancun).” This harsh viewpoint proposes a reality that in-fact turn out to be true in the long run. What happens when we can’t travel anymore if our economy is not strong enough to support personal luxury travel? Cancun will not so beautiful if they are solely dependent upon tourism income. 

 When the Zona Hotelera was being developed, the Mexican government wanted to have a tourism area that was more popular than Acapulco at the time. Before the development, this area of the Yucatan Peninsula was a thick jungle. “Cancun was the first large project this part of the country had ever seen and was expected to help the economy. The Mexican government pushed the project by investing itself vast amounts of money into the infrastructure of the area. (SunofCancun.com, History of Cancun Mexico).”  They wanted to turn it into a five star resort area because they knew it would bring money into the economy like it had done with Acapulco. The tourist industry is not all about exploitation. These resorts are supporting and contributing to the development of the local economy by providing jobs and making money available to further improve the systems like water, roads and power. It is possible that Cancun will eventually become like Acapulco, where instead of having poverty-stricken shacks next to the resort, they will actually evolve into more middle class neighborhoods with grocery stores, homes and schools. During this evolution there are many details to consider. They have to decide whether to maintain the resort as a non-urban beach setting or let it grow naturally into a big city.  It is a question of balance – how to keep tourists coming to an exotic getaway or to make it more like home with a Wal-mart just down the street from your hotel. So far, resort areas in the Cancun strip are finding ways to improve their resort without allowing too much commercialization. This is quite a challenge throughout the tourism industry.

Works Sited

"Blog Action Day- Poverty in Mexico." A Canuck in Cancun. 15 Oct. 2008. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://www.cancuncanuck.com/2008/10/poverty-in-mexico.html>.

"History of Cancun Mexico." Cancun Mexico. 2004. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://www.sunofcancun.com/history-cancun-mexico.php>.

Tonak, By Ali. "The Real Cancun (11/10/03)." Upside Down World. 17 Oct. 2005. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/trade-archives-54/78-the-real-cancun-111003>.