Tourism on the Peninsula

This section presents the interactions between population, environment, and the economy, with an emphasis on tourism as one of the economic sectors. The devel-opment and growth of tourism is also discussed.

The dynamic model is applied to tourism because tourism is the Yucat´an peninsula’s main economic sector as measured by gross national product, or GNP (Inskeep and Kallenberger, 1992). Tourism has developed significantly over the past 20–30 years and is expected to grow in the future (Inskeep and Kallenberger, 1992; World Tourism Organization, 1996). Per capita income is higher on the peninsula than in other regions of Mexico because of earnings from tourism. As a result of these income differences and the economic development of the region, there has been migration to Yucat´an from other parts of Mexico. Other economic sectors that are important on the Yucat´an peninsula are fisheries (see Chapter 9) and agriculture.

Development of tourism and the environment are major issues in the tourism industry (Inskeep and Kallenberger, 1992). The decrease in the quality of the en-vironment concerns not only tourists but also the tourism industry, mainly because of the loss of income.

Tourism may have an impact on the size and age structure of the population.

More job opportunities, higher salaries, or a higher standard of living may attract people from other regions. The structure of the population may change because migrants are generally from the younger generation. In addition to the quantitative changes in population, there may be social, cultural, and economic changes as well.

The interactions between tourism and other economic sectors are apparent, but it is not possible to quantify which parts of commerce, construction, fisheries, or agriculture are related to tourism. Another economic issue is the allocation of in-vestments on the peninsula. Does tourism create its own inin-vestments or does it absorb a part of the investments that otherwise would have been made in other economic sectors? How does water quality affect tourism demand?

The growth of tourism on the Yucat´an peninsula, and especially in the Canc´un area, was planned by the national government (see Figure 8.1). In the late 1960s,

the Mexican government created a plan to develop and stimulate tourism in several new resort areas. The primary goal was to develop tourism in rural areas with tourist attractions (beaches and historical sites) but with few or no other sources of employment or economic development. Secondary goals were to stimulate other economic sectors in these areas, to stimulate tourism in Mexico as a whole, and to generate income in foreign currencies.

Mexico has many beach resorts for domestic and, since the late 1940s, interna-tional tourism. Internainterna-tional tourism can be divided into three groups: urban (e.g., Mexico City and Guadalajara), border tourism in the north, and resort tourism.

Urban and border tourism are highly dependent on the domestic economy; resort tourism is not (Inskeep and Kallenberger, 1992).

In an evaluation focusing on the economy, including the tourism sector, the coastline of Quintana Roo was chosen to be one of the six (later reduced to five) zones for tourism development. Among the places considered in Quintana Roo were Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, and Canc´un. The potential areas to be developed were evaluated according to water supply characteristics, accessibility, natural at-tractions, land ownership, and historical or cultural attractions.

Canc´un was chosen as a tourist resort because of its geographical features: a strip of land and beach enclosing a large lagoon. At the beginning of the 1970s, four main elements were planned and developed: the beach hotels, the international airport, the new urban zone, and the conservation areas. A new town was needed for Canc´un’s increasing population, which grew from only 117 inhabitants in 1970 (Inskeep and Kallenberger, 1992) to 18,000 in 1976 and to 300,000 in 1991. The conservation areas were mainly designed to protect the lagoon.

The natural environment provides several services to the local population and the tourists. The marine ecosystem includes several types of fish (see Chapter 9) and corals. This ecosystem is attractive for tourists because of the good beaches and water sport facilities (for diving and snorkeling). Tourism has a negative impact on the coral reefs: these reefs are very sensitive and may easily be damaged or killed by human activities such as diving, snorkeling, and fishing.

The expansion of tourism on the peninsula, which was stimulated by local (re-gional) policymakers to develop the region, has been very rapid. Although the peninsula’s economy is largely based on tourism, there are other economic sectors, such as fisheries, agriculture, local services, and construction. Parts of those sec-tors are related to tourism – for example, the construction of hotels. The number of people employed in agriculture has decreased rapidly on the peninsula, as in other regions where tourism was promoted by the government (see, e.g., Long, 1991, for the case of Santa Cruz in the Huatulco area).

For Mexico as a whole, international tourism has increased from 1.3 million tourists in 1970 to 17.2 million in 1994, mostly as a result of the increase of beach

0 1000 500 1500 2000 2500

1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 Year

Tourists(1000)

Figure 8.1. The total number of tourists (in thousands) visiting the tourism area in Quintana Roo, 1981–1994. Sources: INEGI (1994) and World Tourism Organiza-tion (1994).

tourism (Inskeep and Kallenberger, 1992; World Tourism Organization, 1994).

The share of tourism in the GNP was 3.2% in 1994 (World Tourism Organiza-tion, 1994). The number of people directly or indirectly employed in tourism was estimated to be 2.1 million in 1994.

The tourism sector has evolved over the past 10 years in particular (see Fig-ure 8.1). In the 1981–1994 period, the number of tourists increased by 362%, more than 25% per year. Only in 1988 did the number of tourists decline as a result of se-vere damage caused by Hurricane Gilbert. The percentage of international tourists as a fraction of all tourists has increased from 51.2% in 1981 to 73.8% in 1994.

This increase mainly occurred at the beginning of the 1980s, and since 1984 has stabilized at around 70–75% (INEGI, 1994; World Tourism Organization, 1994).

Canc´un’s development as a tourist resort has had a direct impact on the sur-rounding region, for example, the island of Cozumel. Table 8.1 shows the increase in the number of tourists in both places and for M´erida, a city in which tourism de-velopment did not receive special attention. The increase in the number of tourists has a direct effect on services needed for those tourists, such as accommodation (see Tables 8.1 and 8.2).

The area’s development has also had great impacts on the economy and the society of the rest of the Yucat´an peninsula. Before, most of the peninsula’s pop-ulation lived in rural areas; now, most of the people live in urban areas (Aguilar and Rodriguez, 1995). The Canc´un project has attracted people from other parts of Yucat´an and from the rest of Mexico. Positive migration into the state of Quintana Roo is the main reason for the region’s population growth. The infrastructure (the

Table 8.1. Number of tourists (in thousands) in the three main tourist destinations.

Canc´un Cozumel M´erida

1981 540.8 174.3 558.7

1994 1,958.1 321.0 459.2

Growth between

1981 and 1994 (%) 262 84 –18

Sources: INEGI, 1994; World Tourism Organization, 1994.

Table 8.2. Number of rooms in the three main tourist destinations.

Canc´un Cozumel M´erida

1981 5,225 1,725 3,138

1994 18,859 3,350 3,331

Growth between

1981 and 1994 (%) 261 94 6

Sources: INEGI, 1994; World Tourism Organization, 1994.

international airport, regional highways, water supply, electric power, and telecom-munications) has also been improved.

The area around Canc´un, especially the island of Cozumel and to a lesser extent the small island of Isla Mujeres, has also developed as a result of the tourism boom.

Improved infrastructure and the presence of coral reefs for diving and snorkeling have made these islands especially attractive to tourists. Before the development of Canc´un, M´erida was where most tourists on the peninsula stayed to visit the Maya ruins of Uxmal and Chich´en Itz´a. Now, however, tourists can also stay in the Canc´un area when visiting these ruins. For international tourists, it is more attractive to go to Canc´un because the international flights to Canc´un are generally cheaper than those to M´erida.

In Canc´un, the number of international tourists increased by more than a factor of 5 between 1981 and 1994, whereas the number of national tourists increased by less than a factor of 2 over the same period. During the same period, there was a 60% increase in the number of national tourists in Cozumel (from 52,900 to 85,500), and the number of international tourists nearly doubled. For the city of M´erida, which is not on the coast, the number of international tourists remained the same over that period, indicating development quite different from that in Canc´un or Cozumel. The number of national tourists to M´erida has decreased by almost 25%.

The strip of coastal land from Canc´un south to Tulum is currently being de-veloped. Playa del Carmen now serves as one of the main alternatives to highly developed Canc´un. The archaeological site at Tulum is a popular day trip for peo-ple on holiday in Canc´un. In fact, the large number of buses near the site has created so much air pollution that the buses are now required to park relatively far from it.