LA IMPORTACIA DE LA SUSTENTABILIDAD
SUSTAINABLE HOTEL IN CANCUN
Cancun began to lose tourists demanding in their desire for nature. Therefore, several companies were launched on the path of sustainable hotel.
CANCUN, Mexico, March 23 (Tierramérica) .- Antonio Moreno is banquet manager of a four-diamond hotel in the southeastern Mexican city of Cancun, but for more than a year his work includes binning.
Why? To confirm that the waste is properly sorted for recycling, said. The vessel "blue is for plastic, yellow cardboard, metal gray and green for organic waste."
With 213 rooms, Le Meridien Resort & Spa, where she Moreno, one of the more than 60 hotels in Cancun and the last to sustainable tourism certification awarded by the Australian organization Green Globe, notes responsible for human resources, Alma Quiñones.
Three other hotels are to begin their certification processes and completed nine says the representative of Green Globe in Mexico, Gustavo Ramos.
All are in a stretch of the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, including Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and Tulum. It is a sea line of 130 kilometers , Riviera Maya, known for its turquoise waters, white sand beaches and reefs. It has more than 70,000 hotel rooms and get some three million tourists a year.
the past three decades, this area is home to the Mayan culture and important archaeological monuments as the pyramids of Chichen Itza Tulum, has been a magnet for tourists from the United States, Canada and Europe. Here you can find sun, sand and culture. And in return leave 5,000 million dollars annually.
However, the lack of sustainable practices to the environment has led some of these visitors to give back to Cancun.
"There are groups of tourists who are investigating whether we are truly environmentally friendly before making your reservation," said Quiñones this reporter.
The hotel estimates that in 2008 lost $ 260 million for this reason. To their surprise, hundreds of tourists demanded the return of his money to arrive in Cancun, where they found what they had been offered in the brochures: reefs and extensive beaches as Hurricane Wilma was in 2005, leaving in place a few meters from sand and stones.
According to the director of Tourism the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), Gabriela Mercado, Mexico lost competitiveness due to the lack of sustainable management of natural resources, and in 2008 that was reflected in the fall of European tourism, which tends to select destinations with good environmental and cultural.
According to the representative of non-governmental Mexican Environmental Law Center (Cemda), Alejandra Serrano Pavón, Cancun hotels destroyed the mangrove forests to construct buildings without complying with the dunes and accelerating coastal erosion.
To reverse this phenomenon, the federal government wants to restore the beaches through a proposed 60 million dollars, which appears to be the solution.
authorities beaches which are thought to extract sand complain that removed to put the costs of those who preyed.
also criticized hotels indifference to the community. There are, no doubt that the economic benefits of keeping tourism in the region, as is acknowledged by official SEMARNAT, to the fact that Quintana Roo feel not own the beaches, especially Cancún.
Hotels have formed walls that prevent ordinary people access to the coast. "10 years ago in Cancun's hotel zone had green screens, you could still see the ocean. But not anymore," says Moreno, Le Méridien.
If someone wants to go to sea must pay the hotel, as the publicist José Uriarte. "I pay my $ 20 day pass and I can use the pool, restrooms, lounge chairs, towels," he says.
But if you install without paying, it can occur that the seller of crafts Jaime Garcia. "The guards are arrogant, they say that the beach is the hotel. Once I told them were public, but seized a hose and doused me until I left," he says. As a result, it is not "a Mayita who works there to go and put your towel out of the Hotel Presidente," says Serrano Pavón.
Maybe that's why some hotels are driven to improve their image voluntary certificate. So, install water treatment plants and with it water their luxurious golf courses, use biodegradable detergents and chemicals, decorate their premises with native plants and improve their relationships with the community taking care schools and houses, giving talks about sustainable practices and donating the money they receive for recycling of cans and glass.
But it's not just about image.
In one year, the hotel Le Méridien dropped five percent of their consumption of electricity, four percent water, 13 percent of liquefied petroleum gas and 24 percent diesel, notes manager maintenance, Gudiño Christopher Nava. Also, went from producing more than one kilogram of waste per person daily, to 520 grams . The next year should improve these figures to endorse the certificate.
In Playa del Carmen, the Mayan Palace hotel, also certified by Green Globe, "an area set aside for a crocodile and renovated an island within a lake to house pink flamingos. We also have an area of \u200b\u200bworm and nursery of native species, "says project manager certification, Erica Lobos.
"offer tourists a tour cycling in these areas and explain why protect these plants and animals that are recovering more quickly after a hurricane, "he adds.
But while these efforts are important, estimates Lobos, adoption of a sustainable culture is slow. "There is some apathy. We advise on sustainable practices, and have only one request a month or two hotels interested in working in this way "is not enough, he says. Meanwhile, Semarnat develops a national standard requirements of sustainability for tourism ventures in the region . It contains the criteria for determining whether a hotel is sustainable or not, and will serve to restore order. Its value lies in exposing those who are not sustainable, which will mean bad publicity.
Cemda For, although the standard is welcome, not enough, because there are hotels that do not meet the official plans and development system that already exist, and still receive the approval of the federal authority itself. Semarnat would not comment on those criticisms.
The indifference of some hotels, especially the newer ones, a real sustainable management of the business is due in part to not see the economic benefits of caring for the area, says Serrano Pavón.
It believes that "environmental issues" is "anti-development and job creation, and it is not. It's quality of life for the inhabitants, and will also allow tourism to continue to generate money," he adds.
Sean 
