Baja Ex-Governor Jailed

Narcisco Agúndez, whose term as governor of Baja California Sur ended last year, is in jail awaiting trial on charges that he sold as his own land belonging to the state. He is not eligible for bail. Los Cabos, Loreto and La Paz all are in Baja California Sur.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Kids Keep Coming

According to figures gathered by the Tourism Ministry, 7.3 percent more spring breakers frolicked on Mexican beaches than did in 2011. And this in spite of official Texas warnings to stay home. Of the 562,000 foreigners who vacationed at the country’s seaside resorts, 76,883 were spring breakers.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers 

Bicycle Friendly Community

The 226-miles of trails within the city of Redding have helped earn the Northern California city the distinction of being named a “Bicycle Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists.  Redding is among 214 American cities and towns that have been so honored in May, including 39 in California. Other California cities added to the list include Alameda and Napa. An online guide to Redding’s trails is found at visitredding.com/trails.

Note: A complete list of Bicycle Friendly Communities is found at http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/

American Airlines

Financially troubled American Airlines plans to expand in Mexico by 10 percent during the next two years, according to its vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean. Growth tends to focus on flights from provincial cities to DFW. Queretaro was added to the list last month and Aguascalientes will be next. But there also will be two more frequencies from Mexico City.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

More Hyatts Coming

Having purchased the Nikko in Mexico City, Hyatt executives have announced that they now plan to open three resorts along the hundred-mile-long Riviera Maya, two in Los Cabos and one more in Tijuana, which lies just south of the California border. In the 1970s, Hyatt became a major player in Mexico, but gradually pulled out. 

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Back on Top

Mexico may still be among the top 10 travel destinations in the world, according to the regional director of the World Tourism Organization. Speaking at the gathering of the World Travel and Tourism Council in the Riviera Maya last week, Carlos Vogeler said reported changes in ranking are “pure speculation.” The meeting also heard from many others, including Mexico’s Carlos Slim, regarded as the richest man in the world. Slim expressed optimism regarding the future.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

SATW’s Top 10 Bridges

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, which officially opened to traffic on May 28, 1937. To mark this key moment in travel history, the Society of American Travel Writers, Travel’s Most Trusted Voice, presents its list of top 10 bridge sites in the US and Canada, with unique offerings for travelers, adventurers, and all-around bridge enthusiasts. • Golden Gate Bridge: We start in San Francisco, the first point on our tour of bridge travel sites.  Visitors can take walking tours, catch spectacular views of the bridge wrapped in fog, and marvel at its trademark deep red color. An entire website is dedicated to the bridge’s anniversary at www.goldengatebridge75.org. • George Washington Bridge: The world’s busiest bridge per car traffic, it routes drivers along 14 total lanes to get them between New York and New Jersey. Opened to traffic in 1931, the bridge was twice as long as any previous suspension bridge. Not just for cars, the bridge also caters to bikers and pedestrians. Get more information at www.panynj.gov. • Lake Pontchartrain Causeway: Although it doesn't span a massive canyon or gorge, this is the longest bridge in the US. Its runs nearly 24 miles, so once you've finished the drive north, take a quick exit to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum in Madisonville, which preserves Louisiana’s maritime history and also hosts a Wooden Boat Festival in October, featuring more than 100 classic and historic wooden boats.  www.lpbmm.org. • Royal Gorge Bridge: A few miles southwest of Colorado Springs in Cañon City, Colo., it’s the highest suspension bridge in the US, hanging in at 956 feet high. A dedicated park offers many adventure activities including ziplines, aerial trams and burro rides — plus it has the longest bridge bungee jump in the US. The park’s site provides information on planning trips; visit www.royalgorgebridge.com. • Smolen Gulf and Liberty Covered Bridges: Together these two bridges account respectively for the longest and shortest covered bridges in the US — and they’re both in Ashtabula County, Ohio.  Situated about 60 miles northeast of Cleveland, the bridges are star attractions in the Covered Bridge Festival, held in October. Visit www.coveredbridgefestival.org to learn more. • Big Dam Bridge: This is the longest pedestrian bridge in North America — it has never seen car traffic. The two bridge ends connect portions of Little Rock, Ark. The span has hosted weddings, offers a full moon walking tour and has a dedicated foundation for promoting physical fitness.   www.bigdambridge.com.  • Overseas Highway: Connecting the islands of the Florida Keys with more than 100 miles of roadway, this series of bridges provides the ultimate road trip experience. The highway is part of US Rt. 1, which runs the entire length of the eastern seaboard and ends in Key West. Get some sun and plan your visit at www.fla-keys.com. • Rainbow Bridge: While not manmade, it is the world's largest natural bridge. This National Monument’s celebrated the centennial of its declaration in 2010.  Seeing this wonder requires a boat trip across Lake Powell in Utah, so tap your inner adventurer to round out our list of bridges. Learn more about the site at www.nps.gov/rabr/index.htm. • Confederation Bridge: Spanning 8 miles from the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, this is the world’s longest bridge crossing ice-covered water. www.confederationbridge.com. • SkyTrail Bridge: The longest pedestrian bridge in Canada, it was built 100 years ago to serve as a railway bridge. In 2003 it was converted to a pedestrian bridge, and visitors can make the 3,000-foot trek across the bridge by visiting the town of Outlook, Saskatchewan.  www.town.outlook.sk.ca/skytrail. SATW's membership includes journalists, editors, photographers, filmmakers, bloggers, and communications professionals who specialize in the travel industry.  SATW promotes responsible journalism, provides professional support and development for its members, and encourages the conservation and preservation of travel resources worldwide.  To learn more, visit www.satw.org.

Toluca

Jet fuel costs more at the Toluca Airport (it needs to be trucked over the mountains from Mexico City) and at 8,466 feet above sea level, more of this fuel must be used to get into the air. This may explain why Toluca has lagged as an alternative airport for Mexico City. Interjet and Volaris shifted many operations to Mexico City International both because of costs and easier connections with other airlines. Problem now is that Mexico City is saturated. One big advantage that Toluca has is that it is closer to the prosperous west side of Mexico City and to many offices and industries in the area. Toluca airport management hopes to pick up business in the months ahead and may fare even better if a new Mexico City airport is built, since the new airport would be further out — and toward the east — than the current one.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Visa restrictions to be eased

During the T20 meeting in Mérida this week, Mexico promised it would ease visa restrictions, allowing more tourists to enter the country and spend money. While for North Americans and most Europeans all that is required is payment of a fee, for citizens of other lands a Mexico visit can be complicated. At the T20 conference — which brought together tourism ministers from the world’s 20 largest economies — visa problems were discussed. Tourism, it was pointed out, results in more jobs and greater prosperity. One difficulty is that some visitors never want to go home.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Carlos Fuentes Dies

Mexico’s greatest writer, novelist Carlos Fuentes, died suddenly on Tuesday. Active, with at least two more books in the planning stage, Fuentes, 83, died from an internal hemorrhage. His works long have been considered essential to understanding Mexico.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Mexicana Airlines

An entity going by the name of Mex-Atlantica has acquired 95 percent of Mexicana Airlines’s stock and announced plans to get the carrier into the air again. Financially troubled Mexicana has not flown since August, 2010. First order of business would be paying debts, including reimbursing passengers who never were able to use their tickets. Other matters include trying to obtain recover routes that were abandoned as well as get back slots at various airports.


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Jimm Budd
Reporting From Mexico City
Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Dateline Mérida

Tourism ministers from the world’s 20 largest economies gather this week in Mérida, capital of Yucatan, for the T-20 conference. After that, they will continue on to the Riviera Maya for the Americas Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council. 

Last month, the ministers of economy and finance met in Puerto Vallarta. Next month, June 18 and 19, presidents and prime ministers fly into Los Cabos. The gatherings are designed to improve relations between the countries involved. Tourism ministers in Mérida supposedly will discuss ways and means of improving tourism and removing barriers that discourage it.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

The Good and the Bad

Although a record 22.7 million foreign tourists arrived in Mexico during 2011, the country dropped from being the 10th most visited entity to the 12^th. Worse is its ranking as 23^rd in terms of foreign exchange earnings. All this has given industry leaders a chance to complain that the government is not doing enough. High prices, poor infrastructure and lack of sufficient airline seats is blamed as is, of course, crime and violence. This undoubtedly will be an issue in the election campaigns now going on.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Tax Refunds

Big spenders from abroad can get a partial refund of the 15 percent (10 percent in Baja and Quintana Roo) federal sales tax, although it is not easy. Shoppers must buy from affiliated stores and then present photocopies of passport, tourist card, boarding pass and the invoices and credit card vouchers from their purchases. Minimum purchase from each merchant is 1,200 pesos. Anything less is not worth bothering about. There is no maximum, provided purchases were made with a credit card. TaxBack, the agency obtaining refunds, keeps about one-third of the refund to cover its operating costs. 

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Hotels

Hyatt has confirmed its purchase of the Nikko in Mexico City for $190 million. After investing another $40 million to refurbish and make it a Hyatt Regency, Mark Hoplamazian, boss of the chain, says the company might sell the former Nikko but continue operating it under an administrative contract. Not to be left behind, Marriott says it plans to open five new “complexes” in Mexico this year giving it a total of 23 in the country. Even bigger plans were announced by InterContinental, which, in addition to a Presidente in the Santa Fe area will be opening 36 hotels (Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Indigo, etc.) during the next few years.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Why dress up?

La Ceiba del Mar, one of the more plush resorts where the Maya Riviera begins along the Caribbean, is now the Desire Pearl Resort and Spa, second of the clothing-optional Desire properties owned by Original Resorts Group. Possibly because airlines now charge to check luggage — or possibly for other reasons — clothing-optional gradually is becoming more popular in Mexico. One assumes that the new Desire will have the same rules as the old one, beginning with a couples-only policy at check-in.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Salud!

Saturday is May 5, Cinco de Mayo, when, it seems, everyone abroad remembers Mexico. Best way to remember Mexico is by sipping a margarita, and there are as many versions of margaritas as there are of daisies. One story has it that the first margarita was concocted for Margarita Casino, a dancer from Brooklyn performing in Tijuana. That dancer later came to be known as sultry actress Rita Heyworth. Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada disputes this as do others. As for Cinco de Mayo, it commemorates the only victory Mexico ever won over a foreign army. That was in 1862, the foreign army was French and the French stayed in Mexico until the end of the American Civil War, after which Washington told Napoleon III to take his army home. 

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Azcárraga replaces Azcárraga

Pablo Azcarrága has replaced his older brother, Gaston, as CEO of financially-troubled Posadas de México, the country’s largest hotel chain. Gaston, who ran Posadas for 20 years, faces legal problems. Among other things, he is blamed for the bankruptcy of Mexicana Airlines, which Posadas bought and later sold, reportedly for $1. Posadas operates Fiesta Americana, Fiesta Inn and “One” brand hotels.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Politics

Campaigning for the presidency, Josefina Vázquez Mota has pledged to diversify Mexico’s tourism markets and its tourism product, to encourage the building of retirement communities for foreign pensioners, to build cruise ship piers in Los Cabos and Loreto and more. Vázquez Mota belongs to the same party of President Felipe Calderón, but she stands second in the polls. Enrique Peña Nieto, at the front of the pack, has made a point of promising nothing specific about anything.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Where’s your favorite place to vacation?

Where is your favorite place to vacation and why? Let me know.

Trains Again?

The governor of Queretaro has announced plans to begin work on a high speed rail line that would connect Mexico City with his state capital, a distance of some 120 miles. The trip would take about an hour, depending on how many stops were made along the way. And now there is talk about a fast train connecting Mexico City and Toluca, only 60 miles distant. Presidential candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador, who has promised to bring back the Tianguis trade show to Acapulco, says that he will promote the construction of a high speed Maya World rail line that would connect Palenque with Tulum via Campeche, Uxmal, Merida, Chichen Itza, Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Currently the only passenger train operating in Mexico is the Copper Canyon line connecting Chihuahua with Los Mochis near the Pacific Coast.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers