Monday, July 21, 2003
By Barnard R. Thompson
Fonatur (National Trust Fund for Tourism Development), Mexico’s government-funded tourism development agency, for the first time in nearly 20 years will launch two new major resort development projects before the year is out. According to John McCarthy, Fonatur’s Director General, the agency is moving forward with “Integrally Planned Centers” (CIP) in Nayarit on the Pacific; and within the Caribbean’s “Costa Maya” corridor of Quintana Roo on the Yucatan peninsula, south of Fonatur’s most successful CIP of all, Cancún.
Nayarit
The project in Nayarit, up the coast 30 to 35 miles north of Puerto Vallarta (somewhat north of Sayulita and south of Punta Raza), will cover 2,200 acres [890 hectares]. As well, a regional master plan is being drafted so that the new area will have ties to the already popular and nearby tourist destinations of Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, and Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, both on Bahía de Banderas, or Banderas Bay. The goal is to make the bi-state tourist areas a single mega-destination.
Draft blueprints have already been completed for the new Nayarit project according to McCarthy. The development will be oriented towards higher-end tourism, for those in that segment of the market who seek vacation living, sun, beaches, sailing and water sports, ecotourism and golf.
Plans call for a low environmental impact development, with but 12 rooms per 2.5 acres. Overall projections are for 11,000 rooms by 2018. There will be a 150 boat capacity marina, three golf courses, a marine theme park, beach clubs, shopping centers, some 34,000 homes and condominiums, and an airport. The forecast goals, for 2018, are 1.025 million visiting tourists, an investment in hotels of US$12.85 billion and US$860 million in foreign exchange receipts.
Fonatur already owns some of the land in the project area, and in place of expropriation it is currently negotiating the acquisition of addition properties with area landowners. In turn Fonatur, apart from its infrastructure development of the master planned project, will sell appropriately zoned properties to private developers and entrepreneurs.
The target date for completion of the first phase of the Nayarit project is 2006. The 2006 goal is 240 hotel rooms that will necessitate an investment of US$26 million. Estimates are that those will serve 23,700 additional visitors, with foreigners alone spending US$14 million. As well, it is anticipated that 780 new jobs will be created.
Quintana Roo
The Costa Maya Integrally Planned Center in the southeastern part of the state of Quintana Roo will be built along 30 miles of Caribbean coastline, south of Cancún and north of Chetumal and Belize. Here again Fonatur owns property, plus it is negotiating to buy land that it does not already own.
Investors and developers will build upper class hotels that will ultimately total 6,600 rooms. There will be golf courses, marinas, a theme park, beach clubs, shopping malls and entertainment centers.
Fonatur has already signed agreements with the state of Quintana Roo and the municipal government of Othón P. Blanco for the first phase of the southern Costa Maya CIP. The initial stage will embrace a 173-acre portion of the land located between Mahahual (due east of Chetumal Bay and Highway 307) and Pulticub (at the southeast corner of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve). That part of the low environmental impact development will include 2.2 miles of beachfront land on the Caribbean coast.
McCarthy pointed out that this region is one of the greatest tourist and ecotourism destinations in the world, a part of the Mexican Caribbean that is famous for sun, tropical beaches, natural history and close by Mesoamerican coral reefs. As such, there will be emphases on environmental friendly water sports such as sailing, scuba diving and sportfishing.
Just as important, the Yucatán peninsula is home to fascinating archeological zones and ceremonial centers of the ancient Maya civilization. Many of those sites are within easy driving and sailing distance from the future Costa Maya project.
The total area of the Costa Maya CIP will cover slightly less than 48,000 acres, although 85 percent of the land is set aside as an ecological reserve. The tourism development area will be limited to 5.5 percent of the property, and 9.5 percent is for urban development. Around 25,000 jobs will be created and 17,000 new homes will be built, with fully installed urban works infrastructures in all residential and commercial zones.
Projections anticipate that 930,000 new national and foreign visitors will be attracted to the area by 2018, with spending calculated at US$660 million annually. |
