I agree that the prevalence of AIs in Cancun has to have hurt local businesses. I also think that it's possible that Cancun has built more hotels and more restaurants than it has tourists to fill. Perhaps when Cancun was perceived by old-timers to be doing better there was a better ratio of hotel rooms to tourists? Maybe now there are more hotel rooms than meet demand? And/or maybe tourists are staying in, because they have AIs. I don't know, but I do know that old-timers complain that Cancun doesn't have the number of tourists that it used to have. One thing I'm sure of is that Cancun is known for it's beaches. If the gov't and the hotels don't figure out how to keep sand on the beaches then the tourists will eventually start thinking of Cancun as a place with a rocky shoreline and the beach lovers will go elsewhere. My husband suggested a new activity for tourists here, given the sad state of beaches. He suggests that people might stick a fishing pole out their hotel room window and go fishing right from their rooms!
Cancunmole those tourism stats may be decieving , as it does not even show # of available rooms and we know the # of available rooms has been rising since Oct 2005 post wilma as damage was repaired and new hotels emerged. Meaning there is more hotels rooms in 2008 then 2006. So you cannot look at occupancy rates alone.
After Wilma the number of rooms in CAncun dropped from just shy of 30,000 to around 27,000. It is now back up to almost what it was before. What has happened too is that the hotels that "remodelled" and rebuilt took advantage of the "new" density flexibility and added more rooms. Ex: The Royal, Beach Palace, etc.--not to mention the new full time condos that are also in the rental market. The amount of rooms is pretty much what it was before Wilma. The number of tourists is about the same--an average of about 3 million per year just in CAncun. What has changed is the "quality" of the tourist--what have increased are the numbers of tourists AT THE EXTREMES. Many more from the lower end of people with little or no money in their pockets for outside shopping and restaurants but with their all inclusive paid for and others (ME, Coral Beach, Ritz, JW) EP high rates that hang out at the upscale restaurants on the lagoon (Puerto Madero, Harry's, Laguna Grill) and shop at Luxury Ave. and the losers are the mid-range restaurants, souvenir shops and shopping malls(the majority). Occupancy this week is about 90% but with lots of people driving in to Cancun from other States and 50% of these (stats from a couple of years ago)staying at the homes of friends or relatives and spending a minimum. Europeans and Brits with their Pounds and Euros are the best spenders since for them Cancun is relatively inexpensive.
Those stats are from the AHC, the Cancun Hotel Association. I can't see what reason they would have to distort or deceive the %ages. As I see it, those percentages represent the number of occupied rooms per day/the total # of rooms based upon the individual * categories and then various combinations. Other than the Agua which began as a Sofitel and opened this spring and the Westin Lagunamar which I'm not sure is even open yet, what are the other new hotels that have been built since Wilma? There are others that are no longer. Miramar Mission, 300 rooms, was located in the now vacant lot adjacent to BVG, gone. The Aristos, 300 rooms gone to make way for BVG. Villas Tacul Hotel, 80 rooms, gone, making way for two more Towers. I think that RiverGirl knows more about the Real Estate situation than either of us and that she is right on that the acreage holds more ROI for the Developers with Towers than with hotels. Who will live in them will have to be a wait and see. I remember a project called Dunas, can't even say what occupies that space now, that was full time ownership... some buyers did get some of their $$ back eventually...
CancunMole you are missing the point but Jim nailed it, if Cancun had 27000 hotel rooms in 2006 and did a 90% occupancy in June 06 say they had 24,300 occupied room. If in June 08 they had 30,000 hotel rooms and had a 88% occupancy rate there would be 26,400 rooms occupied. so you cannot look at percentages alone as the 88% is 2000 more rooms occupied then the 90%. And I am certain Rivergirl knows a lot about the real estate, and after being in Cancun strictly evaluating real estate for nearly 1 year (12 visits and around 40 days spent) I think I know a fair amount as well. It goes beyond just ROI, it also has a lot to do with location, zoning etc. and under the table monies probably come into play. And Puerto Cancun is supposed to have 4-5 hotels by the way. But no doubt hotel operators are not to keen on building outside the hotel zone. Cancun’s occupancy rates are way above the industry average for hotels in the USA or most tourist areas, and as I stated earlier there is no vacant land for hotels in HZ. Also there is new hotels being built, the new Westin is about done and 1 other. There is reasons why places like lahia, BVG etc got the land for condos over hotels, so no doubt there is more then meets the eye here. But I stand by my original statement and that is no doubt in my mind land in HZ and especially BVG is worth more now and will be in the future then land in Puerto Cancun or condos there
Well, I guess all anyone can do at this point is to wait and see what happens down the road with Cancun property values and tourism. I do know that a property's value is only as much as someone else is willing to pay for it. Peace out.
That is one of the primary reasons why I am not going to Cancun nearly as much as I used to. The beaches are not even close to how they were when I started going to Cancun. These days we stay somewhere along the coast south of Cancun and do a few days in Cancun at the end of the trip to do some nightlife and shopping type stuff.
