As recently as the late 60s, Cancún was a fishing village with a handful of inhabitants and the island was a 17-km-long sandbar, only 50 m wide in some places, covered with coconut groves. A group of bankers, visionaries every one, saw the area’s potential and convinced the Mexican government to invest. Construction began and a few years later Cancún became the nation’s most important resort.
Today, 26,194 rooms and 28 years later, Cancún is a world-class vacation spot, welcoming three million visitors a year drawn by its peerless white-sand beaches, turquoise seas, the longest reef in the hemisphere and a perfect climate. Now add the presence of three offshore islands two of which were destinations in their own right–and the most famous city of the ancient Maya (Chichén Itzá), Mérida, the colonial capital of the Yucatán, and the Riviera Maya just down the road, not to mention the wealth of attractions in Southern Quintana Roo and you’ve a combination of assets no other resort in the world even comes close to duplicating. The residential area, or Downtown Cancún has also grown at a phenomenal rate. Like the Hotel Zone it has its hotels, restaurants, bars, stores, markets and malls, in addition to banks and public services.
As recently as the late 60s, Cancún was a fishing village with a handful of inhabitants and the island was a 17-km-long sandbar, only 50 m wide in some places, covered with coconut groves. A group of bankers, visionaries every one, saw the area’s potential and convinced the Mexican government to invest. Construction began and a few years later Cancún became the nation’s most important resort.
Today, 26,194 rooms and 28 years later, Cancún is a world-class vacation spot, welcoming three million visitors a year drawn by its peerless white-sand beaches, turquoise seas, the longest reef in the hemisphere and a perfect climate. Now add the presence of three offshore islands two of which were destinations in their own right–and the most famous city of the ancient Maya (Chichén Itzá), Mérida, the colonial capital of the Yucatán, and the Riviera Maya just down the road, not to mention the wealth of attractions in Southern Quintana Roo and you’ve a combination of assets no other resort in the world even comes close to duplicating. The residential area, or Downtown Cancún has also grown at a phenomenal rate. Like the Hotel Zone it has its hotels, restaurants, bars, stores, markets and malls, in addition to banks and public services.
© 2004 Editorial Veras. La guía Oficial del Caribe Mexicano.