Acapulco Tourism Fair Flops

(Acapulco, AN 11 November) Yesterday the Acapulco Tourism Fair, a familiarization tour of Acapulco with additional features, came to a close among criticisms of the organizers. The forty or so travel agents, mainly from Mexico City, said that they were satisfied about the security of the port, but were disappointed in the organization of the event.

Thirteen years ago, a thousand travel agents attended. Last year, 350 came. This year, the number was 40. The attendees pointed to one culprit as the Acapulco Hotel Association (called AHETA from its full name in Spanish). They charged $1,600 pesos per person, even though all hotels, restaurants, discos and tourist services provide their services for free to the visiting travel agents. Another fault was the organization of the event, said to be “pathetic.” The organizers themselves tried to explain the low attendance by fears of recent violence in the port. Antonio Sánchez, an attendee who has come to the event for its entire history, replied, “That is a lie. Yes, we want to come. There are travel agents who do want to come, but then they charge us a conference fee so high that many of us cannot pay it.” Veterans of the Acapulco Tourism Fair in prior years declared this one a failure, especially since the organizers missed a great opportunity to counteract the negative publicity about Acapulco. The fair was said to be poorly promoted and that information was not available to the target audience. Sánchez added, “They could have sent 1000 agents back to Mexico City with the message that Acapulco is safe, Acapulco is clean, that it has marvelous sun, but, pardon the expression, they don’t give a damn.” Acapulco is in fifth place among tourist destinations in the Mexico City market, after Cancún, Huatulco, Riviera Maya (Tulum) and Puerto Vallarta.