Shortage of cash flow to branch out tourist services in the Mexican Caribbean

Despite efforts to diversify the offer of tourist services in Quintana Roo, such as ecological tourism, there’s still a profound shortage of investment and a poor infrastructure to provide those new sectors with, entrepreneurs from the industry admitted.

Gerardo Gomez Nieto, president of Sylvatica Venturas enterprise –a tourist promoter in the state of Quintana Roo- recognized there are less than ten companies offering that kind of service in the Mexican Caribbean.

Regardless of the enterprise’s deep flair for ecological tourism, the firm is branching out its offers in a slow-motion way, Mr. Nieto explained.

Roberto Chapur Zahoul, exec from the Palace Resorts hotel chain, pointed out the North Zone should by now count on at least ten to fifteen 18-hole golf courses to draw in a tourist sector with a high purchasing power.

In the course of different interviews, entrepreneurs in Cancun linked to specific sectors of the leisure industry stressed that for Quintana Roo to further diversify its array of tourist services and boost segments other than sun and beach, the circuit needs first to lure flows of fresh cash to generate infrastructure, local newspaper Novedades reported.

Local entrepreneur Gomez Nieto –who advertises adventure kayaking across the Nichupte Lagoon and environment-friendly tours around other sightseeing spots in Quintana Roo- mentioned the urgency to map out a comprehensive ecological tourism policy if the state is to make groundbreaking progress in this particular field.

Around 3 percent of travelers who visit Cancun every year should be slotted in the adventure and ecological niches. However, the lack of promotion in this sector and the absence of related companies combine to barely grab half a percentage point of that amount, Mr. Nieto revealed.

Nevertheless, Mr. Nieto admitted that in spite of a potentially mighty advertisement overseas to hook this kind of segments, the bottom line is the state is stripped of an infrastructure sound enough to support this kind of service.

There are less than ten enterprises duly registered in the state of Quintana Roo that operate this kind of business, and to add insult to injury, the largest chunk of them are cloistered along the Mayan Riviera.

In the topic of diversification, Roberto Chapur Zahoul admitted only a handful of investors comes to the state to shell out cash into market sectors other than the local hotel industry.

“Most investment packages home in on hotel rooms rather than on services already set up by the state, when the fact of the matter is that there are segments that only need infrastructure to make them jump on the bandwagon,” Mr. Zahoul averred.

In his opinion, the North Zone desperately needs more 18-hole golf courses to attract deep-pocket travelers, a segment –he said- that besides checking in for more nights than regular guests at the local hotels, the amount of money they ante up here is a whole lot higher.