Mexican Tourism

The Mexican Tourism Industry has experienced such significant setbacks recently that business owners refer to the swine flu epidemic of 2008 as ‘the good old days’. The media’s attention on the over 28,000 drug-related deaths in the last 3 years, combined with the slowest economy in a decade has taken its toll on local tourism. Puerto Vallarta, a stalwart destination of North American travellers for the last 50 years, has been built on this business, and is feeling the crunch. Don’t let this doom and gloom bother you in the least bit though – shopping, eating, drinking, and sleeping have never been cheaper.
The relatively quiet streets of Old Puerto Vallarta belie an over 300,000 strong local population spread amongst two adjacent states - Nayarit and Jalisco. You may feel as if everyone in the town is a beach vendor after dining in one of the open air restaurants, and find yourself saying “non, gracias” upon your return back home. They are hungry to make a deal on everything from bracelets to silver, ornamental oyster-shell masks to hammocks and it is customary to haggle on the price. Buyer beware: show any interest, and they will swarm. As you would be hard-pressed to find other foreigners, your money creates more interest here than it may have just a few years ago. Accustomed to seeing wealth, and not afraid to hassle you, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. In the very least, if you are craving some attention, you will feel very special. Simply wear a t-shirt and shorts, and the local vendors will see you a mile away. This fellow to the left and I had an initial misunderstanding, he was thinking dollars, I was thinking pesos, so when I gave him $25 in coins, he had quite a pause. An uncomfortable moment before we re-negotiated at $140 pesos, or $14.