Cancun is recognized worldwide as one of the most gorgeous places in Mexico, thanks to its natural beauties and its warm and hard-working people. This stunning paradise of turquoise waters was struck in 1988 by a strong hurricane known as Gilbert, which caused severe damage and reduced this city's beaches to a 21-yard wide beach area, which was before a 54-yard wide, for the length of nearly 8 miles.
In 2005, we were stricken by another hurricane, a stronger one called Wilma which almost wiped out the beach and because of which an 8-mile beach recovery project had to be launched in Cancun. The hard work started on the morning of February 1st and ended just 2 days before the Holy Week vacation period.
That was how a total of 32 yards of beach were recovered along 7.2 miles from Punta Nizuc to Punta Cancun with an investment of $217 million pesos, according to the information provided by the Secretario de Infraestructura y Transporte (Infrastructure and Transport Secretary) of Quintana Roo, Jose Gabriel Mendicuti, who also talked about a second phase of the reconstruction project to widen Cancun's beaches. A project of placing artificial reefs and special plants to retain sand is also being considered.
Thanks to all this work, our beaches are ready to receive Easter week tourists, accounting for 6.3% more than those received in 2005. This added increase is definitely a very important source of economic flow for this tourist destination.
It is worth mentioning that according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), "recovering the activity of all the vacation centers quickly after a strong hurricane is a great merit to the joint efforts of the Mexican government and the enterprises". It also said that "the beach recovery in Cancun and the Mexican Caribbean should be an example to be followed by other regions of the planet that could one day be affected by natural disasters".
Cancun made a comeback, much like a phoenix, and it reemerged from the disaster to become not what it was before the catastrophe but what it is now: a strong city without fear. Its hard-working people, who know how to take care of the tourists, step forward into the best of futures.
If you didn't come for the Holy Week vacation, do not hesitate and start planning your next vacation to the best and most beautiful tourist destination in Mexico. With new, great and gorgeous beaches of white sands caressed by the warm turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, remodeled hotels, better and trendy shopping malls, restaurants and nightclubs. Cancun is now 2 billion dollars better than ever. We are waiting for you!
