I'm not really sure cities need a manufacturing industry to prosper these days. Sure 50 years ago it was important but I cant think of a single city in the UK that relies on a manufacturing industry anymore.
Well correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't capitalism basically invented by the Brits (you greedy bastards)? And as such the U.K. has had a real headstart over less developed nations in farming out it's manufacturing needs to other places around the globe (we know you proper Brits don't like to get your hands dirty, if you did maybe you could build a car worth a damn...just kidding). Not that I think we need manufacturing here, my point was that if there was a product that needed floating to market that could be accomplished from here.
Aston Martin are pretty nice cars (good enough for James Bond!) TVR's are good looking too. But its been a while since the cotton mills of Lancashire closed down, and the Black Country (West Midlands) became green again. The latter was in a small part somewhat my fault in a previous life 20 years ago I agree things are different and a little behind here, but there is a huge economy based on people just existing. I think even if you took away the tourism 100%, after a little settlement, Cancun the city would be self sustaining.
I understand your point. But I think the settling would be painful. So many people here are already under-employed.
I just read this entire thread from start to finish. Several, Jim, Spin, of course RG, made excellent points. Just when something new popped into my head, Life In Cancun's post appeared. Friends and I have long discussed price increases here. Cun's point is valid; if you have increased costs, you have to pass them on. That is just the way things work. Hopefully prudent business people will look for other solutions as well, like better efficiency, cost savings in other areas as the price increase cannot be more than the market will bear. They can still pass on their cost increases if they cannot be mitigated in other ways. But what continually amazes me is that a place, usually a restaurant, is not meeting their sales budget, expectation, needs or whatever you want to call it and just raises their prices as a solution. One place comes to mind with regular price changes since they have been open. It seems not to have occured to them that while their concept is a good one, their service sucks, the quality of the food is inconsistent and their menu is boring. God forbid anyone think about training their employees better, monitoring the quality of food and service, making some changes to your menu if people are not ordering certain items and lead by example. Why would I pay an additional few pesos, for an already overpriced product that could be good but is not, served by someone who you have to wrestle to the ground to get their attention. That is the reason people have stopped going to your restaurant in the first place.
TJ - I think your point is valid. But I think that a huge number of small business owners here haven't got any kind of understanding of the subtle things that go into making your business a success. I'm not sure that most of them even have budgets or target sales numbers. I think a lot of them just count the money at month-end, pay the bills and then react, often out of fear. Look at the number of people here that don't understand just the basics of compound interest? People here get into mortgages and car loans without even a basic understanding of what that loan will actually cost them in the end. My Mexican husband is pretty well educated by my standards, but when I met him he had not the foggiest clue how a mortgage worked. Whereas compound interest was something we covered in 8th grade math I think, back in the States. My point is that I think that Mexico, in general, somehow, doesn't educate it's people in business strategies or the ways of finance. Of course some people do learn those things. But the average Mexican I've met knows a lot of history, a lot of geography and very little about business.
Cancun should look at Monterrey , find out why there are so successful and then find a "backup industry" the town Im from in Texas (Beaumont) realized that it had to be diverse.(oil revenue can only last so long ), so now it has a large college , industrial plants - Motiva - Valero- Goodyear , large call centers , Ford Park , rice, major shipping routes and we had toursim until Hurricane Ike hit. but even after the beach was wiped off the map , it's still thriving better than the rest of the U.S. because of the diversity in business. it is literally "boom town" here.
