Hurricane Wilma´s Timing Was as Devastating as its Gusty Winds

Mexico´s Caribbean resorts are scheduled to be open for business again next month as hotels race to patch up storm damage. But Cancun´s famous beaches will take much longer to restore, hoteliers said last week.

Hurricane Wilma tore up coastal resorts and left them knee-deep in water last month. It also ripped the fine white sand away from some 7.5 miles of Cancun´s beaches.

Mexico´s national hotels association said 70 percent of the hotels in the resort city of Cancun should be repaired and open for guests by mid-December.

Yet, it could take three to six months to replace the sand, said hotel association president Pablo Azcarraga.

Aerial photos of Cancun after the hurricane showed many beaches had been cropped to half their size, in some places exposing boulders a few steps from glitzy hotel lobbies.

Azcarraga, whose association groups 210 hotel owners, said the local government had yet to hire a company to restore beaches.

Wilma, the latest in a flurry of powerful storms over the Atlantic and Caribbean, could not have hit at a worse time for “Mayan Riviera” tourism industry, whose high season starts in December.

Hotel bookings in the region –which brings in around a third of Mexico´s tourism income- stand at 35 to 40 percent in December, compared with 90 percent in a normal year.

Insurers have estimated damages from Hurricane Wilma at around $1.4 billion and hotel owners expect further losses from holiday cancellations. Hotels will not be offering discounts to lure tourists back, however.

“Cancun will be back to normal for the beginning of the winter season in 2007. People won´t even remember there was a hurricane,” an enthusiastic Mr. Azcarraga beamed.