RUMORS TO REALITY

CANCUN NOW & WHEN

Ever since the year 2000, when I first began visiting Cancun and way before I started writing a travel guide about the place, I have been hearing rumors about all kinds of building and infrastructure projects. The ideas that received the most mention included some that sounded very promising, and others that sounded, well, not so much. The topics that I recall hearing most about included:

• A bridge to stretch across the Nichupte Lagoon linking Centro (Downtown) Cancun to the Marriott Hotels.
• A bridge to divert traffic around the Km 9 Convention Center area to allow access for public buses, taxis and trolleys only.
• A development to be built to the west of the golf course overlooking the lagoon across from the Hilton.
• A shopping mall, and, or, a condominium complex to be constructed at Playa Delfines (Dolphins Beach), just south of the Hilton.
• A new International airport to be constructed somewhere along the coast of the Mayan Riviera.
• A brand new Hotel Zone to be constructed on the mainland, north of Downtown Cancun in the vicinity of Puerto Juarez.

After Hurricane Wilma struck the area in late October 2005, there were so many more ideas floating around, I was skeptical any of them would ever become reality. However at roughly the same time, the real estate market in Cancun, Playa Del Carmen and the Mayan Riviera was booming and property values were on the rise.

A RUMOR NOT TO BE

A very well-respected developer that had constructed condominium projects in other Mexican cities, set its sights on creating a brand new community in Cancun. Even before their first Hotel Zone building projects Bay View Grand and Portofino condominium towers were completely sold out, there were rumblings about plans for a Bay View Grand Island! The development was to be a residential golf community, built on the west side of the Hilton’s golf course overlooking the Nichupte Lagoon. The area was to consist of several high-rise condominium towers, private homes and mixed-use buildings containing villas and commercial space. The island paradise was also going to include swimming pools, gardens, a health club, spa, arts and cultural venues and a private clubhouse on the beach. The developer set up a showroom at their Portofino tower, launched a flashy website displaying beautiful renderings of the plan, and began accepting pre-construction down payments for the proposed units. I was optimistic that finally, one of the many rumors I had been hearing about was actually going to come true. However several months later, there was news that the project was going to be scaled down due to ecological concerns cited by the local authorities. I was still optimistic, however, to make a long story short, at the present time the land to the west of the Hilton golf course is being sold off as empty lots and the developer has no plans to build anything on the site. Maybe this situation was more about the real estate bubble bursting, rather than the ecological concerns that were put forth in the media, who knows? All I know is that I was disappointed to learn that the project was not going to happen; not because a rumor I had been hearing about for years was not going to take shape after all, but because it sounded like an interesting plan, and one that would most likely enhance life in Cancun’s Hotel Zone.

SOME RUMORS DO COME TRUE

Approximately four years ago, I met a Dutch engineer and land surveyor who was spending a few days in New York taking some time off. He was actually breaking up an otherwise long flight on his way home, while returning to Amsterdam after working for several weeks in Mexico. The reason for his trip was to assist the Mexican Government in selecting an appropriate location for a new airport in the Mayan Riviera. This is the area located south of Cancun that stretches to roughly the border that Mexico shares with Belize, nobody really knows for sure. He claimed that while he was in Mexico to function as an advisor on where or if a new airport should be built, the local authorities seemed to be mainly interested in focusing their attention near Tulum. In my opinion, this made the most sense for several reasons. An airport in Tulum would immediately alleviate air traffic to Cancun’s busy International Airport. It would also simultaneously jumpstart economic growth and development, creating jobs along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, A.K.A. the Mayan Riviera. Earlier this year, official announcements were made by ASUR, Mexico’s airport authority, stating that an area just outside Tulum was selected as the location for construction to begin on a new airport.

Meanwhile, closer to Cancun, while it is not the brand new Hotel Zone that many were saying might go up just north of the original, there have been a handful of new resorts, private homes and condominiums built in the area between Centro (Downtown) Cancun and Puerto Juarez. A massive development known as Puerto Cancun, a high-end yacht and golf community, has been taking shape and will continue to grow during the next several years.

Recently I received an email from a fellow blogger that contained a link to a youtube video depicting a proposal for a new mega project in Cancun. Even though I cannot substantiate the validity of this plan, I felt that the production values were so high, that it lent some level of credibility to this being a serious project in the works. Although it is entirely in Spanish, one can easily recognize from the professional renderings in the video, that the presentation is designed to promote the revitalization of the area surrounding the Convention Center:

While I agree that pumping seawater into the lagoon would help increase oxygen levels, I am not sure that building a bridge to divert traffic is the most intelligent way to spend money. So what if traffic is diverted away from the area between Kilometers 8.5 and 9.3? Wouldn’t that create additional confusion and even worse traffic problems for those who want to visit the area? It’s my opinion that Pesos would be better spent elsewhere. For example, a wise investment would be to have a healthy reserve fund on hand for advertising travel and tourism to Cancun. Think about it; when was the last time you saw a TV commercial promoting Cancun? The Hotel Zone has had brand new beaches since January 2010, yet nothing on TV, but I keep seeing plenty of ads for the Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican, Barbados and Aruba... and while we're on the subject, wouldn't it be better to have funds available for when, not if, the beaches get washed away again after another major hurricane? I like the idea of having arts and cultural centers with an outdoor theater in the heart of the Hotel Zone overlooking the lagoon. It would certainly add a touch of class to the area, and who doesn’t love the idea of strolling around a lush tropical park in the middle of paradise? In my opinion, most of these ideas would be pretty sweet additions to the Hotel Zone… but again, that’s just my opinion.

Do you have other thoughts on the proposal, or a different point of view about the bridge than mine? If you have any comments on the topic, or rumors to add to the mix, feel free to visit the PEOPLE’S CHOICE GUIDE CANCUN page on Facebook to join in the discussion. Until then, happy speculating everyone!

PEOPLE"S CHOICE GUIDE CANCUN Travel Survey Guidebook

INTRODUCTION

From The Beginning

My name is Eric Rabinowitz, the creator of the Cancun travel guidebook and companion PEOPLE'S CHOICE GUIDE (com) website. Before I get started, i want to say that this will most likely be the longest blog entry I will ever make, at least I certainly hope so. The reason I am even posting about what made me decide to write a travel book is because of the amount of times I have found myself explaining to people why and how I got started doing this in the first place. I figure enough people have shown an interest, so why not start from the beginning. If you are not one of those inquisitive people however, you should skip all this and read future blog posts and follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.

Although I am a relatively new author, this is not my only profession. My primary love and passion lies in the field of music, namely as a singer songwriter. The following is a little background on what led me to decide to write a travel guidebook in the first place, and why I chose to write about Cancún.

In early 2000, I needed a vacation in order to escape the every day rigors of the music business. Being the leader of a band is hard work, sort of like being a teacher trying to manage a rowdy class of fourth graders. After not having gone on a vacation in several years, I wanted to visit a place where I could feel safe while traveling solo, to a destination with great weather and fantastic beaches to enjoy it on. I decided on Cancún since I could experience everything I was looking for, plus the highly publicized nightlife. In addition there were the nearby cultural monuments of the Mayan world which had always fascinated me as a young boy, which can be visited easily on day trips.

While planning my first Cancún vacation, in order to become better prepared I decided to buy a few travel guides. They listed the usual; how to get there, the weather, some descriptions of Cancun restaurants, clubs, bars, accommodations and a few tour suggestions. However once I got there, I realized the books were far from being reliable sources. For example, I found there were many wonderful restaurants that never received a mention in Frommer’s, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet, Moon, Hidden, etc., etc. Then there were instances where I read a great review, I wondered if what I was reading was completely honest and unbiased. It seemed that many of the guidebooks included the same few establishments and presented descriptions that sounded very similar to one another. Was this merely a coincidence? Was there something more going on beneath the surface? This really bothered me, especially during future trips when I returned to Cancun and became more familiar with all that it had to offer.

In February of 2002 during my fifth trip, I was approached by an entertainment manager at one of the hotels with an interesting proposition. He asked if I would like to entertain poolside at his hotel the following month with my band Turbulence, in exchange for room and board. I thought for a moment about what it would be like to be performing with my rock band, surrounded by beautiful women during spring break, the busiest and craziest time of year; but I digress… Of course my answer was, “Si Señor”! I returned with my band a month later, but a twist of fate had us instead playing for one of the bigger name clubs during their nightly bar hopping tour.

Since I was the leader of the band and had already been to Cancún several times, I was designated the official trip organizer. Despite giving the drummer and guitarist their own travel guides, they were still in need of much guidance. “Which place serves the most authentic Méxican Caribbean style seafood” "Where can we get inexpensive tacos" or, “This club sounds great, where is it in relation to our hotel”, became familiar themes throughout the trip. This is understandable because travel guides do not cover enough establishments nor accurately describe the locations of businesses in relation to resorts. As I gave advice throughout the trip, both band members kept egging me on, saying I should write a Cancún guidebook. Little did they know, I already had a loose plan starting to take shape in my head to do just that.

Upon returning home, I began putting a plan in motion to create the travel guide I wish I had with me during my trips to Cancún. As I started collecting and piecing information together, it was my primary goal to publish a book with info that can be located and used, quickly and easily. It was also important that it would appeal to those returning to Cancún for their fifth trip, as much as someone who is a confused newbie. The confusion for most begins when trying to choose an appropriate place to stay. Cancún hotels routinely advertise themselves as being three and four star rated, when in reality most of them would receive a maximum of only two or three stars in the U.S., Canada and Europe. I am sure many repeat Cancún visitors can relate to that very scenario. We all face this dilemma at one time or another because with so many accommodation choices, how is anyone supposed to know which ones are winners and which ones fall short? With just a couple of travel writer’s opinions to go on, how can anyone trust that the opinions expressed in travel guidebooks are unbiased? Even when it comes to restaurants, clubs and bars, perhaps the writer wrote their review based on the experience they had when they visited a place when it was having a great day, or perhaps an extraordinarily bad one. Another dilemma travelers run into once they are in Cancún, when asking for a recommendation from the hotel’s concierge, they quite often direct their guests to the establishment that treats them most favorably. To find a way around these situations, I set out to create a unique travel guide that could be used to make quick comparisons between accommodations. I surmised this could be done if Cancun travelers can vote on a website, which would then calculate the scores based on a series of criteria, and use them to rate accommodations. The results would then be displayed online, on a dedicated ACCOMMODATIONS PAGE that allows people to compare the scores the accommodations earned and truly deserve. Once that was perfected, the next step was to see if the same technique could be applied to rate the hundreds of Cancún restaurants, clubs and bars. Once everything was tested, tweaked and fine tuned, the PEOPLE'S CHOICE GUIDE CANCUN website was launched in January 2004.

As the website was busy collecting ratings and reviews from Cancun travelers, I arrived at the realization that the listings would be even more useful if they included information supplied directly by the establishments themselves. The details published in the book would therefore act as a free promotional advertisement for each business combined with their guests' opinions. This unique approach means that our book would not just be another writer’s review, but instead would convey accurate up to date information supplied by thousands of different sources. Once all the data was collected and checked for accuracy, it was sent to the book designer to be organized into a book format. However there was word of a major storm on the way, just one day after the files were sent. I spoke to the designer and we both agreed that it made sense to wait to see what happened with the hurricane. For the next two days, Hurricane Wilma slammed Cancun, and essentially ruined the travel and tourism industry. For the next several months, I called every last business to get updates of their status and projections on when they believed they would be able to reopen. Nine months later, in May of 2006, the premier edition, and the only book with complete Post-Hurricane Updates, PEOPLE'S CHOICE GUIDE CANCUN Travel Survey Guidebook was released.

Since that first edition, the thing that readers appreciate most is the trust in the information. Since no one is pressured or paid to give their opinions, if an establishment deserves criticism or praise, that is exactly what it will receive in our guidebook. We are confident that our method of combining a voter driven survey together with a travel guide writing style format, will greatly enhance your experience in Cancún. It will virtually guarantee you have the best tool for assisting in making your vacation, time well spent. Our travel guide will also be supported with frequent updates on our website. This means no more wasting time looking for that restaurant all the other travel guides are telling you to visit, but has since gone out of business. We do however rely on your comments and suggestions for future editions. If you would like to cast your vote, give opinions and submit information for our upcoming book, please visit our website's VOTE PAGE. Your opinions and feedback would be greatly appreciated, and will ultimately help us, help other Cancun travelers in the future.