Acapulco steps up investments to boost tourism
Mexican authorities and entrepreneurs will fork over $353 million from 2003 to 2025 to foster tourist development in Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero in virtue of an agreement between the Tourism Department and local officials in both Acapulco and Guerrero aimed at giving the Acapulco Metropolitan Area Tourism Plan a big leg up.
The project has been crafted by the National Tourism Promotion Fund (FONATUR) –attached to the Tourism Department- along with local authorities and the corporate sector with a view to raise competitiveness and place Acapulco as a top-rated domestic and international tourist destination.
The plan includes works for road infrastructure, environmental improvement and streamlining, plus diversification and enhancement of the tourist offer.
FONATUR said today in a press release that over 1.9 billion pesos ($182 million) will be shelled out in the first stage of the project (from 2003 to 2006)
The second stage will be phased in between 2007 and 2012 with a total investment of 1.3 million pesos ($123 million), while the third and last stage will click in between 2013 and 2025 with 513 million pesos ($47.5 million) worth of investment.
Some of the project’s highlights include hauling up the room stock from 34,400 to 52,000 accommodations, broken down in 27,000 hotel rooms and the remaining 25,000 ones in vacation residences.
Moreover, the plan seeks to push average occupancy rate in Acapulco from 44 to 65 percent and bring up tourism flow from 4.5 to 8.2 million tourists every year.
In addition, plan advocates hope to rake in as many as $3.1 billion in revenues compared to half that figure ($1.5 billion) that’s being snared right now.
Furthermore, the project could lift employment from 124,000 to 275,000 jobs and branch out the tourist offer into such segments as sports, ecological tourism and conservation.
The agreement was inked within the framework of the 28th Acapulco Tourism Marketplace that will come to a close next Wednesday.
