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("Nautical Steps", "Nautical Route", "Nautical Ladder") |
| What's with the proposed Escalera Nautica on the Baja California Peninsula and mainland Mexico? Read below for most of your questions and some of your answers regarding the "Nautical Steps" ( "Nautical Ladder", "Nautical Route".) |
Press Releases -
From the SAN DIEGO METROPOLITAN Day-Tripping Baja By Boat The Mexican government is promoting the development of a chain of 22 marinas around Baja California Get ready to hear quite a bit about Baja California’s Escalera Nautica over the next few years. Literally translated it means “Nautical Ladder,” but a better description is “Nautical Route.” In days of old, Fathers Junipero Serra and Eusebio Kino traveled throughout the Baja California peninsula and present-day California establishing missions. Well, the Escalera is something similar, except that instead of inland religious missions, it will be marinas along the Pacific and Sea of Cortes coasts, followed by the same along the Sonora and Sinaloa mainland states with Sea of Cortes coastlines. The original missions were built at distances of one day’s travel by horse or cart. Similarly, the Escalera’s marinas will be at one day’s travel by boat — about 120 nautical miles apart. The plan calls for 22 full-service marinas, 10 of them new. Of the 12 existing, seven will be improved and five are judged as already adequate. The 10 new marinas will be located on sites with natural shelter, or bays, a feature the peninsula has in abundance. Five of these are to be in Baja California, three in Baja California Sur, and one each in Sonora and Sinaloa. Additionally, the plan calls for an 84-mile highway route for towing boats from one side of the peninsula to the other. This feature will allow boat travelers quick access to either body of water for those without time or interest in sailing around the southernmost tip of Baja California Sur. Further, the plan calls for improving the road between Mexicali and San Felipe to allow bigger-boat towing rigs crossborder access to the Sea of Cortes. The plan also calls for improvements in 10 existing airports and 10 airstrips to make it easier for tourists to get to the chain of marinas. In this manner, Mexico hopes it will attract year-round mooring and rental income. In support of the project, John McCarthy, the director of Mexico’s Fonatur (national fund for the promotion of tourism) anticipates that once completed, no less than 52,000 American boat owners will set sail to those destinations and a good number will permanently moor in the various marinas. Moreover he estimates that 76,400 boats will be cruising Baja coastlines by 2010 and that by 2014 there will be 5.4 million nautical tourists. (Today there are 1.65 million registered boats in the Southwestern United States.) The Mexican government has designated Escalera Nautica as the anchor tourist project during the Fox administration. Of course, it was presented during the last two months of the Zedillo administration, so Fox inherited it. But it really goes farther back than either Fox or Zedillo. It was in the early 1970s when this project was envisioned, studies performed and the peninsula mapped to locate placement of the marinas now being promoted. A consortium of multinational United States companies, which included the likes of Atlantic Richfield (now ARCO), created a mega-fund known as ADELA, at the urging of then U.S. Sen. Jacob Javits of New York. ADELA had several projects, among them a strategic alliance with Crocker land and other companies to develop Baja California, which was to include marinas and infrastructure projects such as desalination plants. By 1973, the Baja California peninsula study and mapping was completed, and a grand presentation was scheduled at Los Pinos when the Mexican White House was occupied by President Luis Echeverria Alvarez. Echeverria was a very erratic person and though well apprised of the project, announced on the day of the presentation that “Mexico is not for sale” and walked out of the room. So the plans have lingered somewhere gathering dust until recently. If Mexico can pull off the project, it will transform the Baja Californias into one huge tourist destination peninsula. Such a project by necessity would include hotels and golf courses along with every conceivable tourist-related amenity imaginable. Since the Mexican government has decided to spend about $222 million on the project during the next six years, the several billion dollars needed for hotels, golf courses, et al., will have to come from private sources. And most of it will have to come from foreign sources. This is where the opposition comes in — dubbing the entire project’s hidden purpose as one big land speculation promotion, because it clashes with the conservation objectives of the Biosphere Reserve of the Gulf Islands, the Loreto Bay National Park, the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve and the Upper Gulf of California Biosphere Reserve. Opponents claim that from an environmental point of view the project is totally incompatible with the Sustainable Development Program of the Sea of Cortes. As of yet, Fonatur has not submitted an environmental impact assessment for the Escalera Nautica, as is mandated by Mexican law. But McCarthy reports that “the project is not only sustainable from an environmental point of view, but also in terms of profits, and it will improve the socioeconomic situation of the communities and local populations, which provides service in the tourist centers, as a way of fighting poverty.” The sides are lining up — environmentalist and status quo supporters on one side, federal and state officials with private sector investment promoters and land owners on the other. It is certainly going to get interesting. Patrick Osio Jr. can be reached through San Diego Metropolitan or by e-mail at posiojr@aol.com.
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STATE of BAJA CALIFORNIA Interview with Mr. Juan B. Tintos Funcke, Tourism Secretary of the State of Baja California Mexico
Mr. Tintos Funcke, let’s take a look back, what would you consider were the main achievements of your dependency in the past ? As of last Friday, I’ve been the head of this office for eight years now: the last three years of the past State administration with former Governor Ernesto Rufo; the three years that Governor Hector Teheran, who passed away, headed the State government; and now with the present Governor Alejandro González Alcocer. There’s been a lot of work achieved but basically I would sum it up in a more professional way of doing tourism, of promoting it and promoting an integral development of tourism, recognizing tourism in Baja California for its multiple facets, starting off with a traditional one which is to promote what we already have. We’ve implemented new campaigns, new procedures, and new strategies that have never been done before in the State. We’re proud to say that the Federal Secretary of Tourism or other state governments in the country has taken many of them as an example on a national basis. We’ve reactivated a state hotel room tax which in only three years has given us five times more resources for the promotion of our attractions and activities. We’ve been able to increase the number of events from 100 to 250 events per year. We are the state in Mexico that has the largest calendar of tourism events in the country, many of them project us worldwide such as the off-road races, the Baja 1000, the Baja 500, the Rosarito-Ensenada bike ride (the fourth largest in the world), regattas, different expos, sea-food expos. That is, different events that generate for us millions of dollars in revenue for the cities that play host for these events and at the same time project our name and our image to many media sources throughout the world. We’ve added as a generator of tourism for our State the film industry since the establishment of the 20th Century Fox Studios here in Rosarito beach where Titanic was filmed and six other motion pictures. This has generated for us a new activity that in just three year has brought over 75 production of different types: from TV documentaries, full-length movies, TV series, TV commercials, musical videos, commercials from Europe, Canada, the USA, Mexico. And all of these activities also represent important revenue: the contracting and use of different types of services in our community. We’ve attracted investments we want here in our State so that we have more family-oriented tourism and at the same time retain our tourist for longer periods which will translate into more revenue for our tourism economy. Besides the 20th CFS, there’s an entertainment center called Foxploration built next to the studios by 20th CF. It’s around an 8 million dollar investment, probably more, that will give a unique behind-the scenes look at film making but in an entertaining way for all the family, a new 42 million dollar investment cruise-ship terminal in Ensenada that will consolidate Ensenada as the number-two cruise-ship port in Mexico, only after Cozumel. In general, golf courses, marinas, infrastructure that again can help us attract more visitors and stay longer but with a better quality tourism. We’ve also initiated different programs, that’s why I mentioned a more professional way of doing tourism: studies, master development plans, plans for our main tourism regions which have also been taken as a model on a national basis so that we can give incoming investors more certainty on aspects such as the use of land, areas that must be preserved and cannot be developed, we produced different planning efforts for eco-tourism developments so that now, anybody who comes to Baja California to invest can be certain that where they are building they’ll be provided enough information from our government regarding the profile of visitors, regarding financial aspects for the type of investment they want to do. To give you an example, we did this five years ago in a small port we have on the Sea of Cortés called San Felipe and a lot of people didn’t understand why we were investing all these resources and efforts in defining how we want San Felipe to grow, what goes where, what cannot be touched. And that program was the key element for the Federal Government this year to declare San Felipe a priority tourism zone of Mexico. That helped us to attract a group that is projecting to start in January the construction of two golf courses, hotels, marina and condominiums in San Felipe. But again, one of the main things that make Baja California attractive or different in the world is its natural beauty. Since we took office here, we have been very careful in not sacrificing that natural beauty and those natural resources in order to have more tourism services or infrastructure. We’ve focused on the so-called sustainable development, basically how our natural resources can coexist with some type of development, whether it’s eco-tourism, whether it’s low-impact investment but generating the economic benefits without necessarily impacting the environment. Another thing we’ve been recognized for on a national level is our training courses and what is called our cultural tourism program and this is going into elementary schools, high-schools, universities and to different organizations in our State to generate more awareness on what tourism is: why it is important for Baja California, how a Baja Californian can be a tourist and why we should be very good host to our visitor. And we produce various materials that have been distributed to the schools such as this calendar with the 12 paintings of over 500 that children drew last year to promote this calendar; this is how kids see our State and its attractions. This calendar is just an example, we have a booklet we’ve been giving out in the schools for the last 5 years and what we’ve achieved is that in BC we believe that tourism is more recognized as a priority. We’ve made tourism a popular element.
Do you feel that the perception of BC’s image as a maquiladora state to a tourism state has already changed or are there still efforts to be undertaken? No, maquiladora is one of the most important contributors to the growth of tourism in BC because in the process of making tourism a more recognizable concept, a more understandable concept by the community and in acknowledging tourism is not an elite thing, that you can be a tourist for many reasons and you don’t need a lot of money or to be a foreigner to be a tourist. What we have taken to the community is the concept that anyone can be a tourist with a lot of resources and with access to a certain level of services or you can be a low-income tourist but at the same time enjoy your free time in a constructive way. In this process we have thanked our Secretary of Economic Development because as long as they attract more maquiladoras to BC, this generates a type of tourist which is business-oriented. To give you an example, Mexicali, the State Capital has had a maquiladora boom over the past five years and you can see it reflected in its number of hotels, restaurants, car-rentals, cell-phones, all the services a business-oriented tourist may need. So, this is what we have brought forth to government officials, to the State Congress, to the people that conform the tourism sector of BC, and we’ve told them maquiladoras and tourism go hand in hand, it’s a type of tourism. In the same way we receive tourists for medical reasons, we receive tourists because of maquiladoras, tourists that come to because of those 250 events, tourists that come to the film industry, for religious reasons, for many different reasons. We are probably the Mexican State that receives tourism for the most varied reasons. We have the number-one spa in the world located in Rancho la Puerta, Tecate, according to Travel Leisure. We have one of the most modern spas in the world, which is the Sano VIP clinic south of Rosarito Beach, which receives tourists that stay for two weeks or maybe a month. Rancho la Puerta is a favorite hide out for Hollywood stars, business moguls, CEO, etc. I think creating a varied vision of tourism is one of the most important achievements we’ve had. One last thing that we’ve generated as of last year is a social tourism program where we are reaching 800,000 Baja Californians who work in the maquiladoras, who work in the unions, who belong to small business, who say "Wait a minute, now I understand the booklet my son received in high-school. Now I understand that there are a lot of things to see and do in BC, but I still don’t have the resources." So we’ve generated a unique social tourism program because it combines three basic elements: we are promoting all the ranches and camp grounds and what we call "balnearios" that have swimming pools where you can have a barbecue, some where you can camp over night; we’ve gone with training courses for the owners of these establishments; we are financing the ones that already exist to have better facilities and the ones that have a property were a beautiful stream passes by and there’s a road nearby and have a potential are being financed to develop the area as a ranch or as a camp site. That is something that Governor Gonzalez Alcocer has liked very much because this way, in our universal focus of tourism we are contributing to better integrating the families of BC giving them access to information for recreation through the hand-out we distribute in different sectors. In this way all the family can spend their time growing as a family.
Tourism in Mexico has produced a US$1.7 billion surplus, how does the State of California stand in percentage terms from this figure? It is estimated that the northern border of Mexico generates 30% of what Mexico has from tourism expenditure. I think last year tourists spent $8.9 billion dollars in Mexico. Out of that 30% percent, BC generates 51.4%. Tourism in BC means about 1.3 billion dollars coming in per year to our economy. That is according to Banco de México. That means tourists that are coming into our border for hours as excursionists spend around 30-35 dollars and tourists that come for one or two nights are spending from 49 to 52 dollars. We are considered among the five most important tourism states in the country. We have a very unique and privileged geographical location, which can work both ways because you can become compliant because you are so near to the main provider of tourists, the State of California. That’s something we battle day in and day out. We’ve just had a very good Labor Day weekend, around 200,000 people came in for some hours or for one or two nights.
Isn’t this a much to short time, wouldn’t you agree that a sustainable tourism has to imply a longer average stay? We wished we had an average of people that stayed more. Last year we had 28½million foreigner border crossings entering BC. That’s why we’ve gone to the Federal Government and told them "Yes, you’ve got Cancún. Yes, you’ve got Los Cabos, Ixtapa and Acapulco, but pay more attention to the northern border because we have millions of people coming in." But they come and often they don’t stay enough and the great majority are excursionist and don’t spend the night. Why? Because of all of these reasons: we need a better infrastructure in the border so there won’t be a three-hour wait; we need better urban development programs for the border cities in order to determine the tourism regions in each cities and create what we’ve called the "yellow brick road" for tourism. This is something we’ve discussed in the 3 meetings we’ve had with Fox’s group regarding tourism. We presented a position to the incoming Federal Government saying "We can’t continue to be such an important region and not receive the same attention as other traditional sights. If you pay more attention to these topics in the border, we are sure that in the mid-term we can convert a lot of those excursionists of hours into three-night tourist which would translate into more income for the country." That has been our fight. We believe we’ve achieved a lot in the past six years with this Federal Government but now we are very exited (BC has a PAN government), that we have a PAN president coming in and an ex-governor of Guanajuato where he promoted very interesting tourism programs and we’ve exchanged a lot of information. Our expectations are very high. More recognition of the northern border means recognition to BC, because we’re the number-one state in the border but we need that same focus. We need the future Federal Government to recognize tourism as a priority, as an intrinsical concept, we need better infrastructure, more private investment, etc. If we achieve that, there’s no stopping us because if you see the northern border, we are the great tourist provider for Mexico because of our location.
How much of your budget would be spent in the promotion of BC? 0.04 percent of the State budget is dedicated to tourism. That includes rents, salaries, promotional resources, and research resources. One of the things I’m most proud of is that every year I’ve increased the budget for our office, not necessarily because of inflation. At a national level, the budget is somewhere in the neighborhood. In cost-benefit, you see an industry that for our state generates 1.3 billion dollars and we’re only dedicating that portion to tourism, something must be wrong. That’s been our fight. I’m the first Tourism Secretary in Mexico’s history that studied tourism. I started my administration at the age of 33 and a lot of people criticized my radical ideas. Tourism was seen as a very informal activity, a sure activity because of the great neighborhood we have. But our fight in Baja California caught on the rest of Mexico. That’s why we’re happy to see more recognition, but we need it to grow in the next government with examples such as declaring the northern border a priority zone, not abandoning the traditional locations but creating new Cancun’s in the northern border. If we were to bring investment groups to the border, let’s take the County of San Diego (that has over 100 golf courses, we have 6 as a state), just imagine the potential. There’s 1.6 million yachts in the West Coast of the US and in Baja we have 2 marines. That just gives you an example of the raw material we have. If we were to get more attention, more resources, more coordinated efforts (we have the Escalera Nautica project with Fonatur, we need to speed it up!) we’d do great things with the State. If you can imagine bringing people from the West Coast in their yachts, it’s a high-profile tourist that will later want to fly in. Those are the types of potentials we have as a State, we have over 1,000 miles of shoreline, and we have to exploit that with sustained development (we’d be one of the top 15 countries in the world if we were a country).
What is the origin of the tourists visiting Baja California? Most present tourists are from the US. 90 percent come from California. 85% of our tourists are from the USA. There is a growing Arizona, Nevada and Colorado market. From other areas: Canada, Japan, and Europe. European tourists are mainly oriented towards eco-tourism, the whole peninsula is a giant eco-tourism destination. Eco-tourism looks for the authentic things that make your destination different. We have cave paintings, we have missions, the California gray whale, unique flora and fauna, a combination of habitats. I would describe BC as a place with variety: cosmopolitan cities with first-rate services, you can be surfing in Ensenada in the Pacific in the morning, take a beautiful three-hour ride here and be kayaking in the Sea of Cortés which is considered a giant aquarium, stay and go to the observatory 11000 feet up that’s surrounded by pine trees and a beautiful lake and where it snows in winter and then come down to the desert that meets with the ocean.
How do you foresee the development towards a greater share of Asian tourism in BC? It’s been a gradual situation. For example any tourist worker has as a primary market California, the US, Canada, Asia and Europe. One of the things we lack are more international flights. When I was in Asia last year, we offered the alternative of Tokyo-LA and then from LA to take a cruise to Ensenada and then maybe drive back to LA. There are only two flights from LA to Tijuana. It’s growing gradually but the other markets aren’t as strong as the US market. The southern states, specifically California, continue to be the main providers of tourists for the main destinations here. The ones that go further south and go trough the peninsula tend to be European. The Japanese are still not so confident about taking that type of a vacation. According to statistics, the typical Japanese traveler is a woman between 21 and 25 years old, there’s a trend of getting married in very unique places. We think we have material to interest them but it has to be very gradual because our main goal is to consolidate our US market, we have a growing market from Las Vegas, Arizona (that has the largest number of boats but has no beaches). The shore-less Arizona yacht owners could come down through Mexicali to San Felipe. The Escalera Nautica is actually contemplating the construction of transportation for yachts from one side of the peninsula to the other. Fortunately for us, we’re the first step in the ladder. That’s why we’re hoping that the Federal Government will continue with Fonatur and speed things up, eliminating the procedures and bureaucratic steps.
What are going to be your primary goals for the next months? I have only 14 months left in office. My immediate goal is to leave the Escalera Nautica in such an advantaged process that hopefully next year we’ll have the ground breaking by the Grossman Group from Santa Rosalita to Bahía Los Angeles to create that canal, to leave San Felipe with the ground breaking of the golf course marina hotels and condominiums. We own the international airport in San Felipe, to leave it as part of the send-off of San Felipe in becoming an important destination, it was declared a priority zone by the Federal government. To leave the corridor between Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada consolidated. For Tijuana to take the definitive steps to build a multi-purpose center for expos, conventions, seminars and even large public events. Promote the Fox studios, and have more development around it. Ensenada as the number-two port for cruise ships in Mexico and in three years receive half a million passengers per ride. Once it’s finished, it will be the port with the best technology in Mexico. And leave the southern parts of the state with a certain start-off byway of the Escalera Nautica.
Thank you very much.
ASSAULT ON THE SEA OF CORTEZ
Reforma, Mexico City
Baja Brainstorm: Build Ports for Those Yachts Mexican officials hope to increase the number of visiting boats by creating a long network of stops. Environmentalists worry about delicate ecosystem. By CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS, Times Travel Writer Los Angeles Times Sunday 17 June 2001 Some people look at the Gulf of California and see a rare retreat for marine life and the occasional fishing boat or pleasure vessel. But when Mexican President Vicente Fox and his tourism advisors look at the same desert-fringed patch of salt water between Baja California and mainland Mexico, they see room for 76,400 yachts a year. That's nearly 10 times the estimated current traffic. Such an influx of upscale visitors, officials say, could be a boon for tourism and could mean a boost in jobs and quality of life for Baja, Sonora and Sinaloa residents who have endured decades of bad roads and ragtag government services. But environmental groups are worried that the same influx could undermine the rare ecology and stark natural beauty that make the peninsula unique. (They worry less about mainland Mexico, where the project calls mostly for upgrades of existing facilities, rather than new coastal construction.) They have asked for more details, but so far, those remain in short supply. The " Escalera Nautica " ("nautical route" is the Mexican government's translation) plan is to build a network of 22 ports in the next decade that form a route around Baja California's perimeter and along the mainland rim of the Gulf of California (better known in Mexico as the Sea of Cortes), stretching as far south as Mazatlan. With ports spaced about 120 nautical miles apart (that's about 138 miles on land), the network is intended to act as a sort of secular seafarers' version of the California mission system, easing exploration (and relaxation) for boaters. They will add docking, fueling, provisioning and radio communication facilities and in some cases restaurants and lodging. Tourism officials also hope for an increase in land-based visitors once those tourists realize that related road improvements will mean easier access to tourist attractions. FONATUR, the Mexican government's main tourism development agency, began meeting with state officials last year and announced Fox's backing for the project in February. (Similar plans had been proposed in 1976 and the mid-'90s but were never executed.) The first key piece of the project is the creation of a transpeninsular "dry canal," or "land bridge," about halfway down the peninsula to give boaters a 70-mile shortcut between the Gulf of California and the Pacific. The path now includes miles of rough rural road and is impractical for boat transport. Once completed, the path is intended to accommodate transport of boats as long as 55 feet. "We want to start building in July," said Juan Tintos Funcke, tourism secretary for the state of Baja California. If federal officials approve a request for $16.5 million, the road could be done by March, Tintos said. Under the plan, semitrucks will shuttle vessels between the sea and the ocean, using new or expanded facilities (including marina slips) at Santa Rosalillita on the Pacific side and the Bahia de los Angeles on the Gulf of California side. Currently, most boaters must sail all the way down the 820-mile-long peninsula, then loop around Cabo San Lucas to reach the Gulf of California. Between Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas there are virtually no marine services. A shortcut with a port network is "a great idea," said Pat Rains, coauthor of the "Mexico Boating Guide." "A lot of people have wished that this could happen." But Rains also noted that Mexican officials have raised, then shelved, other versions of this concept. The plan counts heavily on private investors, Tintos said, and requires cooperation among federal officials, four Mexican states and more than a dozen municipalities. He said many site selections are still tentative, depending on environmental review, and acknowledged that the goal of 76,400 boats a year is optimistic. And Tintos noted that the initial projection of $222 million in FONATUR funding in the next five years is only an estimate. Apart from the new and expanded port facilities, plans call for construction or expansion of 20 airports and airfields. Already, Tintos said, his state has spent about $2.5 million, and the federal department of Communications and Transportation has laid out about $7 million for early work on the Santa Rosalillita-Bahia de los Angeles road and related projects. The potential effects on the sparsely populated peninsula have raised sharp questioning from environmentalists. "Everywhere we go, Escalera Nautica is now the subject. But as far as I can see, they are not very well coordinated," said Patricia Martinez Rios, administrative director of Pro Esteros, an Ensenada-based wetlands protection group. "This is what concerns us--that they will start building and destroying without ... listening to the experts." But Martinez Rios said: "We are aware of the necessity of development for many communities. ... I think this is the best opportunity so far to really do correct planning, to really understand what sustainable development means. But we don't want to give any opinion before we know enough." She also would like the government to seek more citizen input. "The people who live in those places have not been asked," she said. In some little towns, Martinez Rios said, "they don't want to change their status from fishermen to ... servants of tourists." For his part, Tintos said many of the residents of Santa Rosalillita and Bahia de Los Angeles (less than 1,500 combined, mostly fishermen) see the project as a chance for economic betterment. He also said the success of the project depends upon its ability to highlight and protect the area's natural and cultural resources. Government officials, he said, are working on how to manage that. (And the process could get more complicated after Oct. 31, when Tintos and the rest of Baja California Gov. Alejandro Gonzalez Alcocer's cabinet leave office to make way for a newly elected state administration.) Five of the new project's 22 proposed ports are already full-service facilities: Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Guaymas-San Carlos and Mazatlan. Seven others would be expanded: San Carlos (the one in Baja California), San Felipe, Loreto, Mulege, Santa Rosalia, Puerto Penasco and Topolobampo. New facilities would be built in 10 other locations: Cabo Colonet, Puerto Canoa, San Luis Gonzaga, Santa Rosalillita and Bahia de los Angeles (all in Baja California); Bahia de Tortuga, Punta Abreojos and San Juanico (all in Baja California Sur); Bahia Kino in Sonora and Altata in Sinaloa. Locations for proposed airfields and airports are not yet certain, Tintos said. Christopher Reynolds welcomes suggestions but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Address comments to Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail to chris.reynolds@latimes.com.
FROM THE LA TIMES - Plan Aims to Boost Baja-area Boat Traffic By Christopher Reynolds Los Angeles Times June 24, 2001: Some people look at the Gulf of California and see a rare retreat for marine life and the occasional fishing boat or pleasure vessel. But when Mexican President Vicente Fox and his tourism advisers look at the same desert-fringed patch of salt water between Baja California and mainland Mexico, they see room for 76,400 yachts a year. That's nearly 10 times the estimated current traffic. Such an influx of upscale visitors, officials say, could be a boon for tourism and could mean a boost in jobs and quality of life for Baja, Sonora and Sinaloa residents, who have endured decades of bad roads and ragtag government services. But environmental groups are worried that the same influx could undermine the rare ecology and stark natural beauty that make the peninsula unique. (They worry less about mainland Mexico, where the project calls mostly for upgrades of existing facilities, rather than new coastal construction.) They have asked for more details, but so far, those remain in short supply. The "Escalera Nautica" ("nautical route" is the Mexican government's translation) plan is to build in the next decade a network of 22 ports that form a route around Baja California's perimeter and along the mainland rim of the Gulf of California (better known in Mexico as the Sea of Cortés), stretching as far south as Mazatlán. With ports spaced about 120 nautical miles apart (that's about 138 miles on land), the network is intended to act as a sort of secular seafarers' version of the California mission system, easing exploration (and enhancing relaxation) for boaters. They will add docking, fueling, provisioning and radio communication facilities, and in some cases restaurants and lodging. Tourism officials also hope for an increase in land-based visitors once those tourists realize that related road improvements will mean easier access to tourist attractions. FONATUR, the Mexican government's main tourism development agency, began meeting with state officials last year and announced Fox's backing for the project in February. (Similar plans had been proposed in 1976 and the mid-'90s but never were executed.) The first key piece of the project is the creation of a trans-peninsular "dry canal," or "land bridge," about halfway down the peninsula to give boaters a 70-mile shortcut between the Gulf of California and the Pacific. The path now includes miles of rough rural road and is impractical for boat transport. Once completed, the path is intended to accommodate transport of boats as long as 55 feet. "We want to start building in July," said Juan Tintos Funcke, tourism secretary for the state of Baja California. If federal officials approve a request for $16.5 million, the road could be done by March, he said. Under the plan, tractor-trailers will shuttle vessels between the sea and the ocean, using new or expanded facilities (including marina slips) at Santa Rosalillita on the Pacific side and the Bahía de los Angeles on the Gulf of California side. Currently, most boaters must sail all the way down the 820-mile-long peninsula, then loop around Cabo San Lucas to reach the Gulf of California. There are virtually no marine services between Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. A shortcut with a port network is "a great idea," said Pat Rains, co-author of the Mexico Boating Guide. "A lot of people have wished that this could happen." But Rains also noted that Mexican officials have raised, then shelved, other versions of this concept. The plan counts heavily on private investors, Tintos Funcke said, and requires cooperation among federal officials, four Mexican states and more than a dozen municipalities. He said many site selections are still tentative, depending on environmental review, and acknowledged that the goal of 76,400 boats a year is optimistic. And Tintos Funcke noted that the initial projection of $222 million in FONATUR funding in the next five years is an estimate. Apart from the new and expanded port facilities, plans call for construction or expansion of 20 airports and airfields. Tintos Funcke said his state has spent about $2.5 million, and the federal department of Communications and Transportation has laid out about $7 million for early work on the Santa Rosalillita-Bahía de los Angeles road and related projects. The potential effects on the sparsely populated peninsula have raised sharp questioning from environmentalists. "Everywhere we go, Escalera Nautica is now the subject. But as far as I can see, they are not very well coordinated," said Patricia Martinez Rios, administrative director of Pro Esteros, an Ensenada, Mexico-based wetlands-protection group. "This is what concerns us - that they will start building and destroying without listening to the experts." But Martinez Rios said: "We are aware of the necessity of development for many communities. . . . But we don't want to give any opinion before we know enough." She also would like the government to seek more citizen input. "The people who live in those places have not been asked," she said. For his part, Tintos Funcke said many of the residents of Santa Rosalillita and Bahía de Los Angeles (fewer than 1,500 combined, mostly fishermen) see the project as a chance for economic betterment. He also said the success of the project depends upon its ability to highlight and protect the area's natural and cultural resources. Government officials, he said, are working on how to manage that. (And the process could get more complicated after Oct. 31, when Tintos Funcke and the rest of Baja California Gov. Alejandro Gonzalez Alcocer's cabinet leave office to make way for a newly elected state administration.) Five of the new project's 22 proposed ports are already full-service facilities: Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Guaymas-San Carlos and Mazatlán. Seven others would be expanded: San Carlos (the one in Baja California), San Felipe, Loreto, Mulege, Santa Rosalia, Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) and Topolobampo. New facilities would be built in 10 other locations: Cabo Colonet, Puerto Canoa, San Luis Gonzaga, Santa Rosalillita and Bahía de los Angeles (all in Baja California); Bahía de Tortuga, Punta Abreojos and San Juanico (all in Baja California Sur); Bahía Kino in Sonora and Altata in Sinaloa. Locations for proposed airfields and airports are not certain, Tintos Funcke said.
Fox's Resort Development Criticized Fox's resort plans for Mexico face criticism July 16, 2001 Posted: 5:28 PM EDT (2128 GMT) MEXICO CITY (AP) -- In a plan to develop some of Mexico's still-pristine beaches, President Vicente Fox has announced a return to the "mega-project" approach that spawned resorts such as Cancun. But environmentalists and some coastal residents are protesting the big plans that Fox's team of businessmen-turned-officials say will provide jobs and cash for the new, more modern Mexico that Fox has promised. "Everybody talks about sustainable development, but they refer only to the environment," said John McCarthy, Fox's point man on the new projects. "We can't have sustainability when people are in extreme poverty." Environmentalists counter that they are concerned about boosting income, but for local communities rather than resort developers. "In the past, these mega-projects have always been shady, suspicious, environmentally damaging," said environmentalist Homero Aridjis. "They were done behind the backs of local communities and benefited only officials and a few of their friends." One plan would create a string of 22 marinas around the Baja California peninsula, turning it into a playground for 75,000 boat owners from Arizona and California. Aridjis complained that would lead to crowding and pollution that could harm the rich marine life of the Gulf of California. There are already nationalist concerns over the peninsula, whose coast is dotted with American homes and hotels. Fox has proposed having foreign firms build power plants in Baja to supply the United States with electricity. "It worries me that Mexico might become a colony for natural resources for the United States," Aridjis said. Adan Hernandez, 24, a biology student who helps run a sea turtle center in San Carlos -- one of the proposed marina sites, also is worried. "People here don't want to give up their lives as fishermen to become waiters or janitors," he said. "In this kind of project, we always see the money winds up in the pockets of foreigners." Giving up fishing is exactly what McCarthy would like many Baja residents to do. He said overfishing means those who rely on it are headed for poverty. 'Cancun is a symbol of success' McCarthy's projects, the government's first large-scale ventures into resort building in 20 years, also could transform whole swaths of Mexico's coasts. On the southern Pacific, McCarthy's National Tourism Fund would transform the Huatulco resort -- most of whose pristine bays are now reachable only by boat -- by putting pricey hotels and restaurants on every beach. "If at the end of my term, I can say I developed all the bays at Huatulco, I will be satisfied," McCarthy said. "Cancun is a symbol of success," he said, though environmentalists often cite the miles-long stretch of high-rise hotels at the Caribbean resort as an example of overbuilding. The more laid-back Huatulco, where fishermen earn a living taking tourists to a half-dozen virgin bays from hotels on two developed beaches, "is an example of something that hasn't worked." The key for Fox's government is to make money from tourism. A third project would make Mexico's last stretches of undeveloped Caribbean beaches, an area 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Cancun, into a super-exclusive vacation area aimed at foreigners. "It will be high-level tourism for the rich. It's going to be very expensive and very much eco-tourism," said Environment Secretary Victor Lichtinger. Lichtinger said McCarthy "won't get everything he wants," suggesting some projects might be scaled down. But some worry that Lichtinger has a difficult balancing act. As a member of Fox's economic-development team, he is interested in getting the projects built and advises developers on plans his agency later will review. "It's a great advantage," Lichtinger said. "Now we have the possibility to influence all the programs" as they are proposed. "The environment will be considered from the start, not only at the end." Raul Benet, director of Greenpeace Mexico, called that a "double-edged sword," which could subordinate environmental to economic policy. Aridjis called it a conflict of interest. Critics point to a nearly seamless integration of private corporations, developers and foreign interests in Fox's government. Fox himself has said his administration "is of businessmen, by businessmen and for businessmen." Fox's whole policy, Benet said, "appears aimed at adjusting everything to completely serve the interests of foreign investors."
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