Tourist development project in the pipeline for Mexico’s Isla Mujeres-Tulum corridor

Cancun._ As Cancun’s territorial urban and commercial reserve is just five years away from nearing depletion, the main challenge will be the purveying of basic infrastructure for the Isla Mujeres-Tulum corridor, an area that will count on over 110,000 hotel rooms, 1.7 million inhabitants and an 11-million-tourist inflow by the year 2025, the Novedades de Cancun daily newspaper reported.

In the face of this perspective, the federal dependence –in charge of boosting the tourist development of Mexico’s major vacationing centers and with a boastful Cancun as the “jewel of the crown”- is coping with the challenge of becoming economically self-sufficient in order to cease its exclusive dependence on federal resources.

The Tourism Fund (FONATUR) needs cash self-sufficiency badly enough to primarily zero in on the maintenance of Cancun’s hotel area, a task that will continue to be its own responsibility.

According to Edgar Villajuana Berzunza, director of the Cancun Project, today the entity has six super blocks in the city and six vacant lots in a zone known as San Buenaventura, where plans to build the Cancun Malecon (Seawall) have been over the counter for over a decade. In all, there are 100 hectares FONATUR intends to market in the course of three years.

As far as the hotel area is concerned, FONATUR still hopes to undertake the third stage with top-notch projects and golf courses.

Regardless of some concrete plans in that respect, they are virtually mothballed until all environmental clearances are granted.

In addition –Mr. Berzunza commented- there are 250 available hectares for the third stage of the hotel zone; 100 hectares for the Cancun Malecon –still under litigation- plus 370 for the Cancun Port “megaproject,” a scheme in which FONATUR takes part in sale outlines and follow-ups of specific projects.

Time is ripe to start working with state and municipal authorities in enhancement programs for both the Mayan Coast and Riviera, chiefly in providing basic infrastructure, Mr. Berzunza went on to say.

Thirty three years after its foundation –formerly known as INFRATUR back in 1969 until the Federal Government handed the country’s tourism policy down to the Bank of Mexico- the institution has been bound to widen its range of action.