Añorve Asks Private Sector to Back Báez
(Acapulco, ElSur 19 August) Acapulco’s private tourism sector has been highly critical of State Tourism Promotion Secretary Graciela Báez Ricardez, particularly for her somewhat Pollyanna statements about how the image of violence has not hurt Acapulco’s tourism, and for the apparent lack of concrete measures to counteract the negative press with positive stories and promotions for the port city. Mayor Manuel Añorve Baños, in a press statement, said that the business sector had reason to be worried about the situation, but requested that they be patient and give Graciela Báez a “vote of confidence.”
Soon a documentary filmed last January will be aired on national television in which President Calderón says that the violence associated with narcotics trafficking has not affected tourism. With respect to this controversial (and evidently preposterous) statement, Añorve said, “I am 100% in agreement with him.” He keep citing hotel occupation statistics as support for the argument.
The evident “official” line for politicians and bureaucrats is to deny the problem and say that any problem can be overcome by a public relations effort. Meanwhile, the private sector decries the denial of the problem from the political sector, and points to inaction or at least ineffective action on the part of the government. The only promotional and public relations effort for Acapulco this year that has seemed to have local impact is the “Speak Well of Aca” campaign, which was a private sector initiative.
The private sector also points out that hotel occupancy is down, that whatever there is has been caused by deep discounting, and that visitors do not spend money in bars, in restaurants or in transport, but rather stick to the beaches with food and drink purchased at grocery stores. No matter what the hotel occupancy, the attendance at restaurants and night clubs after 9:00 has all but vanished.
The mayor promised, without any details, “a grand promotional effort” in support of tourism in Acapulco for these months of September through October, which would be a joint effort of the municipality and the State of Guerrero. After a couple of long, patriotic holiday weekends in September, the calendar is usually open and traffic slack until late November. These are the “hungry” months.
Comments
Acapulco tourism
My wife and I have visited Acapulco in February and March for the last 26 years. What is happening there now is destroying the city. The wonderful citizens and business people of this beautiful city deserve a realistic effort by their government to eliminate the killings. Regarding tourism, I find it strange that the hotels don't drastically discount their rooms. In Feb March of 2010 and 2011 we were the only occupants on the floor of our hotel, yet the costs keep increasing. Why not seriously advertise and discount the rooms to fill the place and increase income, maintain jobs for staff,etc. I just don't understand the logic.
Violence in Acapulco
Calderon and Baez....shame on you!!!!!!!!!
Back Baez
To all of you officials who keep insisting that Acapulco is safe and that the violence being reported is exaggerated, What is wrong with you??? I realize that you probably know your job is at stake if you tell the truth about your city but to put tourist in harms way just to save your job is low.
American, Canadian and other tourist are reading about what is happening in Acapulco and all of your sugar coating does not fool us!
In all honesty, the issue was
In all honesty, the issue was overblown until pretty recently. Acapulco started receiving negative press back in 2007. I would say up until mid to late 2010, the violence problem was quite isolated and did not effect tourists in the least. Since then, it HAS gotten quite bad. The government knows the problem is getting serious, but what are they going to say? Tourism officials are pretty much powerless to do anything about it so they just have to keep smiling or they will lose their jobs. Personally, I think they would be best not to make any more statements at all.
What has changed? Well, basically, each time they arrest the leader of an organized crime group, the group splinters and violence increases. There is no dominant cartel in Acapulco right now, rather the cartel that once ran the town has been blown to pieces and its many pieces are now fighting one another.
A very interesting and well-written article can be found here: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/an-american-drug-lord-in-acapul... Things began to deteriorate badly in December 16, 2009 when the leader of the cartel that controlled Acapulco was killed. Since, several other major players have been arrested. At the moment, the city underworld has a leadership vacuum and the result is out-of-control violence as numerous groups compete for dominance.
Before that point, however, violence was pretty isolated and as many here would argue, myself included, reports about the situation were blown out of proportion. Things are quite different now. Things are bad, Acapulco is getting quite dangerous, and no end is in sight.
El diablo sabe más por viejo que por diablo.
Post new comment