How a fishing village became the jewel of the Caribbean: the origin of Cancun

The penetrating turquoise blue color of the Caribbean Sea, together with the warm climate and white sand of Cancun's beaches have made this destination one of the most important destinations for tourism not only in Mexico but worldwide. Year after year, this city on the Yucatan Peninsula receives thousands of tourists from different parts of the world, however, its discovery and development is relatively recent.

An article published by NASA's Earth Observatory has revealed how one of the country's poorest regions managed to become a tourism powerhouse thanks to the use of new technologies and the vision of Mexican authorities who sought, in the mid-1960s, to promote the country's economic development.

According to the report, a little more than 50 years ago, Cancun was an unknown territory with a small population of approximately 100 people. Located amongst the vegetation of the jungle, where some of the most exclusive resorts are now built, there used to be only strange sand dunes and a coast full of swamps.

During the 1960s, the port of Acapulco in Guerrero had already established itself as one of the most important tourist destinations in the country, however, the ambition of the authorities and the need to boost the country's economic development led them to seek new alternatives for places that had the potential to become major tourist centers.

Thus, the Mexican government became interested in developing the country's tourism sector to boost the economy and began to analyze the statistics of several consolidated sites such as Miami Beach and Acapulco.

Already in 1968, according to the article in NASA's Earth Observatory, Mexico used algorithms and computer models, as well as different knowledge technicians and the best academics of the time to select the ideal site.

To achieve this, they developed a consumer profile of the typical tourist, analyzed their migration habits and their expenses. Also, in terms of infrastructure, they analyzed the design of the resorts, the number of rooms per hotel, as well as climate issues such as average temperature, rainfall seasons and hurricane events. The information was entered into a computer program and the same system selected several possible options.

The officials then took on the task of personally visiting each site along 10 thousand kilometers of the coast of Mexico to inspect its beaches and see the living conditions that existed. Finally, the choice was reduced to 25 sites and preference was given to regions where people were extremely poor and there was no existing industry, being the Peninsula of Yucatan and the island of Cancun are the ideal locations in this regard.

By 1972, bulldozers began to quickly transform that small fishing village in the Caribbean into one of the most popular tourist destinations in recent decades.

Regional economic development was one of the main objectives of Infratur in Cancún, so the agency was authorized to purchase land to develop and induce private investment that would provide basic services such as airports, bridges and roads, as well as water, electricity and telephone services.

In September 1974, the first hotel in Cancun opened its doors and in just one year more resorts were built and received around 100,000 tourists. Currently, Cancun provides a quarter of all Mexico's tourism and has become one of the most important tourist destinations in the world.

Despite this, tourism in Cancun has also had a major impact on the region's environment, with water pollution being one of the biggest problems since about 95% of all water wastewater ends up in the sea.

This has become a threat to aquatic ecosystems, and the large amount of garbage produced ends up in illegal garbage dumps. In addition, hotel construction and human presence have eroded beaches, causing serious damage to the reefs.

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