Ending a Touristic Destination in Four Decades: Cancun’s Creation, Peak and Agony

Abstract

This article aims to explain how Cancun was born in the 1970’s, and how this beautiful natural site with a warm weather which had fostered a wide variety of marine and terrestrial fauna and flora was transformed. The article describes the way in which its touristic offer has evolved, the way in which the number of arriving tourists has developed throughout the years, as well as the problems faced by hotel owners due to the impact of various hurricanes and the influenza AH1N1 epidemic in 2009 amongst other facts.Cancun, similarly to other resorts created under similar circumstances, has received dramatic environmental and social impacts as a result of the substantial transformation of its natural habitat and to the application of policies which have only looked for short term economical benefits; some of these impacts are explained hereby. Finally, the consequences of the development scheme followed for decades in this Mexican resort facing serious survival problems are discussed.