$19M for repairs to Cancun beachers

Wednesday 14th December, 2005 Posted: 15:45 CIT (20:45 GMT)
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) – Crews will begin working in mid–January to replace the powder–white sand Hurricane Wilma stripped from Cancun’s beaches and plan to finish the job by the last day of April, President Vicente Fox said on Tuesday.

The federal government has pledged 200 million pesos (US$19 million) to dredge the ocean floor and replenish the beaches, estimating it will take between 2 and 2.8 million cubic meters (70 to 100 million cubic feet) of sand to finish the job.
"The idea is that in the end, we are better than we were before the hurricane," said Fox, addressing a group of business leaders after a regional energy summit he hosted with Central American leaders.
Belgian maritime engineering and construction firm Jan De Nul beat out four other bidders to win the rebuilding contract, and will be charged with maintaining the sand after it has been replaced, Fox said.
Major coastal developments, including large U.S. resorts like Miami Beach, often bring in outside sand to bolster beaches and dunes and protect against erosion. Hurricanes can displace huge amounts of sand, stripping some beaches while making others bigger.
Packing 145 mph (235 kph) winds and 30–hours of relentless rain, Hurricane Wilma walloped Cancun – the country’s premier resort – in October, destroying homes, businesses and hotels and blowing away large swaths of beach. Most of the city’s normally glittering resort hotels, restaurants and U.S.–style mini–malls remain closed nearly two months later and don’t plan to open until January or February at the earliest.
Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo called rebuilding the beaches "very, very, very important for all of us."

In addition to governmental efforts, private tourism firms have pledged to finance an independent project to rebuild 2 miles (3 kilometers) of beach adjacent to 25 hotels in Cancun’s hotel zone – a strip of coastline dotted with high–rise resorts and flanked by the Caribbean on one side and a lagoon on the other.

Fox also promised Tuesday that work would begin next year on the construction of a new airport for the "Mayan Riviera," a collection of resorts that includes Playa del Carmen and stretches along the Caribbean coast south of Cancun.
Tourists visiting the fast–growing area currently fly into Cancun, then take buses or vans or drive rental cars the rest of the way.

Though Wilma roared through Playa del Carmen, the damage there was not as extensive as in Cancun and life is largely back to normal. Tour operators report that many visitors unable to travel to Cancun have headed to the Riviera Maya, where Wilma’s winds actually caused the beaches to get bigger.
Fox said that increases in the number of tourists visiting Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and other resorts on Mexico’s Pacific coast in October and November has softened the blow of Cancun’s problems for the country’s tourism industry.
"Fortunately, those who could not come here have stayed in the country in nearly the majority of the cases," the president said, citing hotel occupancy rates elsewhere, but failing to provide concrete statistics.