Posted on: Sunday, December 30, 2001
Mexico once again becomes hot destination
By Traci Carl
Associated Press
TULUM, Mexico — Only weeks ago, Leila Voight was trying to persuade hesitant tourists to visit her secluded cabanas south of Cancun. Now they are begging her for rooms.
Her e-mail is clogged with as many as 30 messages a day from New Yorkers and others who want to trade nightly news reports on the battle against terrorism for piņas coladas and strolls on the beach.
Across Mexico, hotel owners and government officials say tourism has returned to normal after dropping 12 percent right after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. At the resort of Acapulco, more flights are arriving than before Sept. 11, including new arrivals from Chicago and Dallas.
Mexico is one of the few countries to have seen such a recovery. Nations in Europe and Asia are still struggling.
Bernabo Bocca, Italian Tourism and Hotel Association president, said the attacks have cost $918 million in hotel business, mostly because of the "loss of rich American and Japanese clients."
In Spain, 38 percent fewer Americans visited after Sept. 11, and the number of visitors in Singapore dropped by 10.6 percent compared to last year, with arrivals from the United States plunging more than 40 percent.
Puerto Rico has won back some tourists with cheap fares and promotions — including free flights from some U.S. cities if people booked hotel rooms for at least five days. But it hasn't totally recovered.
Mexico appears to have a combination that is attractive to attacks-weary travelers: It's cheap, relatively safe and — for U.S. residents — close to home.
Facing a possible crisis in its third-largest source of revenue, Mexico launched a $35 million tourism campaign to promote mountain resorts and beach getaways in the United States, Mexico and Canada with the slogan "Mexico, closer than ever."
Security was tightened at vacation spots across Mexico and the paperwork needed to drive south across the border was eased.
In recent weeks, throngs of Americans have returned to Cancun's white-sand beaches, which were all but empty after Sept. 11.
Settling into a lounge chair after a swim, Deirdre McCaffrey said after losing her job at energy trading company Enron in Houston, she wanted sunshine and aquamarine waters — not more terror reports.
"We didn't watch the news all day yesterday," she said. "You have no idea what's happening. You can just lie on the beach and not worry about any of those things."
