Cancun Hotels

In the 1970s Cancun was a small fishing village. A mere 30 years later, it had become an international resort with a population of 500,000 that annually received four times that number of visitors mainly from the United States to the north. This meteoric rise was checked in October 2005 when Hurricane Wilma smashed into Cancun and wreaked havoc for 40 hours. Many buildings, including hotels, were damaged, and swathes of sand were spirited away, further damaging tourism. The downtown area is the city proper, where most of the shops, banks and government offices are, and where most of the local residents live. Most of the luxury hotels lie on the zona hotelera a 22km- (13.5 mile-) long island that encloses its own lagoon. Famed for its white sandy beaches (many now dramatically altered), it is connected to the mainland by a causeway at each end. Most of the tourists arrive on package tours lured by the clear waters of the Caribbean and the year-round sun. With the bewildering choice of bars, clubs, restaurants and other tourist amenities, few will ever leave the zona hotelera, let alone venture out to explore the rest of the Yucatan. Local officials remain confident that Cancun can recover quickly from the hurricane and the future of Cancuns lucrative tourist industry depends on a rapid recovery.