Three weeks into the summer vacation season and resorts at nine seaside destinations report a disappointing 57-6 percent occupancy rate. Not showing up are domestic tourists, who account for about 80 percent of hotel occupancy in Mexico. Many reasons are given for the disappointing figures, from slow economic recovery to more hotels competing for the same number of customers, but the big reason may be the weather. Rain has been falling along both all coastlines for the past three weeks. Inland, many highways are occasionally flooded.

Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara has just returned from Miami, where, she announced, she met with with Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit. She reports that low-fare Sprit is interested in flying to Toluca, Campeche, Leon and Guadalajara and possibly other points in Mexico. Spirit now flies to Cancun.

Spanish hotel group Barceló, known now in Mexico primarily for its all-inclusive resorts at seaside destinations, has announced plans to open hotels in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. The new properties should be in operation sometime in 2012, according to Miguel Angel Guajardo, general director of the group in Mexico. At the moment the only Barceló in Mexico not on the beach is in Cuernavaca, a favorite weekend playground for Mexico City.

By Jimm Budd

Only one percent of all hotels classified by the American Automobile Association rate five diamonds. But ten percent are located in Mexico, three in the Riviera Nayarit. This Riviera is Mexico’s newest, extending north from Puerto Vallarta for 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) along the shores of the state of Nayarit.

Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara expects Mexico to be the fifth most visited country in the world within six or seven years. Currently it ranks tenth and is number 20 in earnings. Needed to reach this goal is more business from additional markets. For the moment, eight out of ten international tourists come from the United States and Canada. Ms Guevara hopes to change this, with 40 percent of all travelers arriving from other countries. She sees China as especially promising.

Two of Mexico’s richest men, Emilio Azcárraga (Televisa) and Carlos Slim (everything else) have sold their stock in Volaris, one of the new, low-fare airlines. Each held a 25 percent interest in the company.

According to a recent article in the newspaper Excelsior, there are 409 timeshare properties in Mexico, 107 of them in Cancun and the neighboring Maya Riviera, followed by Puerto Vallarta and its neighboring Nayarit Riviera, followed by Mazatlan, Los Cabos and Acapulco. Although contracts vary from property to property, generally speaking, customers buy the right to occupy a unit for a specified period of time every year.

Mexico will invest 1.6 billion pesos (about 1.23 million dollars) in its upcoming tourism promotion campaigns, Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara told El Financiero, a Mexico City daily, during a visit to Toronto. Emphasis will be on promoting the ten “tourist routes” the minister has been touting, the idea being to show that Mexico has more to offer than beaches. While tour operators agree, several have pointed out that beaches are what travelers to Mexico want.

Mexico City is looking forward to 2.4 million visitors this summer, according to Alejandro Rojas, head of the city tourist office. Rojas, who hopes to become mayor in 2012, noted that the capital has 50,000 hotels rooms, 2,000 restaurants, 240 nightclubs and discos, 145 churches (not counting smaller chapels and shrines), 140 museums, 75 shopping centers, 33 zoos and 31 parks, which should be enough to keep any visitor busy.

Mexico hopes to see 22.6 million tourists from abroad come into the country this year. The figure, according to the Tourism Ministry, would be similar to 2008. Numbers for 2009 were dismal. By next year, according to the National Development Plan prepared in 2007, the country should be playing host to 28 million foreign visitors. The total includes cruise ship passengers and border crossers as well as those who arrive planning to stay for a weekend, a week or even more. Business travel was down to 97,000 during the first quarter, compared to 144,000 the year before.