Vegas-by-the-Sea
The ultimate government tourism initiative
In the 1960s, the federal government of Mexico decided it needed to generate more tourism, specifically tourism from the United States. At the time, international tourism to Mexico underperformed. There were a few hot areas. Acapulco had been a jet set destination for decades. Tijuana always drew in day-trippers and weekenders from California. But given the sheer amount of coastline, Mexico was leaving a lot on the table. Acapulco was great for West Coast Americans, but was a haul for those from the East Coast. Tijuana was seedy and not pulling in serious money. Americans were beginning to head en masse to Miami, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. Mexico wanted to get into the action.
The government fed a bunch of statistics from existing tourist hotspots along with data from various Mexican seashores into a computer. Data about climate, hurricane risk, oceanic conditions, etc. The computer helped identify places that could be developed into tourism areas. Then Mexican officials went to these areas to see first-hand what could be done. They met with locals, walked the beaches, and considered what areas would benefit most from tourism.
After careful study, the government decided to develop a tourist area near the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, on a large barrier island off the coast. At the time, the barrier island had only three residents, all caretakers for the only development there: a coconut plantation. Nearby, on the mainland, was a small fishing village with a population of around 100. Otherwise, the place was empty. The entire state of Quintana Roo, which is larger than the state of Maryland, only had a population of about 88,000 people in 1970. Most of the interior was dense jungle. Most of the coast, deserted. This was not sparsely populated agricultural land; it was wilderness. The state capital of Chetumal was hundreds of miles away. It was here that the Mexican government decided it would create a destination for American tourists.
It was a smashing success. Despite having to finance the first group of hotels with government money because no private bank would agree to lend to such a hair-brained scheme, Cancún took off immediately. An airport was hacked out of the jungle, hotels were built, and an entire city was constructed for hotel employees. Americans arrived by the thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions. A mere 50 years after the first hotel opened its doors, Cancún now has over 30,000 hotel rooms and welcomes an astounding 10 million visitors a year. Take a look at this time-lapse footage. The expansion isn’t the hotel zone or tourist area, which is the thin strip of land to the right of the lagoon. This is the growth of the city of Cancún, which exists solely to staff the hotels on the aforementioned barrier island:
Those tens of thousands of hotel rooms occupy skyscrapers being pumped with air conditioning in the tropical heat. Millions and millions of gallons of water are pumped into hundreds of gigantic swimming pools. Every night, performers sing and dance in front of throngs of crowds. The whole thing is insane.
It’s hard to think of a place that rivals Cancún as far as government successes. Many, many other governments have tried to turbocharge tourism. Some have succeeded, but these were usually only in places that already had, you know, people living there. The Algarve Coast in Portugal was mostly sleepy fishing villages 50 years ago, but it wasn’t empty. Tavira, Faro, and Lagos were small cities, but still cities nonetheless. The Algarve also developed somewhat organically, with help from the government but no master plan. Perhaps one of the few exceptions is Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, which was a small village in the 1970s but is now the premier North African beach destination.
In some ways, Cancún is like Las Vegas. A Las-Vegas-by-the-Sea. A century ago, both were desolate places. The small fishing village of Puerto Juárez and the railroad town of Las Vegas were mere hamlets in 1910. Both had geography working against them. Las Vegas is in a brutally hot desert. Cancún a brutally hot jungle. Both take extravagance to extremes, offering anything and everything under the sun - for a price. Both have evolved and changed with the times, Vegas from gambling mecca to family-friendly wannabe destination to corporate convention hub. Cancún from all-you-can-eat-and-drink bargain destination to upscale locale.
Neither place should exist. They are both ludicrous aberrations that would be declared unrealistic if put into a novel. A giant road in the middle of the desert that goes by a giant pyramid, half-sized statue of liberty, and artificial lake with a dancing fountain? Tens of thousands of hotel rooms built on top of a small barrier island surrounded by nothing but jungle? Neither Las Vegas nor Cancún should be real places.
This really hits home for those who drive. Driving east from Barstow, California, is like leaving civilization (some might argue Barstow already is outside civilization). For over two hours, one drives through empty desert, punctuated by minuscule towns and the occasional gas station. Then, out of nowhere and in the middle of the desert, appears a city with over a million people. Not only that, but a city with the greatest architectural absurdities man has ever dreamed of building. Cancún is the same. There is very little to see from Merida, the only city not dominated by tourism on the Yucatan peninsula, and Cancún. Just mile after mile of endless jungle. But suddenly, you are not only at the ocean, but at the place of a thousand swimming pools.
Yet exist they do. Both Las Vegas and Cancún have found their niche. Vegas became America’s playground when the state of Nevada bucked the trend and legalized gambling. At first Southern Californians flocked to Sin City. Then the country. Then the world. Cancún began as a strip of fewer than ten hotels in the 1970s. One of the first, now the Temptation Cancun Resort1, is still open for business. Millions of Americans flock to both. May they forever prosper.
The hotel name does not have the accent present in Cancún.