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Mexico – Tourism industry prepares for casinos in Mexican Caribbean

The President of the Association of Hotels in Cancun and Puerto Morelos in Mexico (AHCYPM), Carlos Gosselin has said that the hotel industry in the region must be prepared to adapt to new challenges and changes that will support tourism infrastructure ahead of Mexico’s new gaming law.

The new law, which will be up for debate later this year in the Mexican Senate, could green light large scale resorts in tourist hot spots.

The hotel industry in the Mexican Caribbean is prepared for this challenge, he said as the landscape is already changing. “The hotel industry is reinventing Cancun around services and attractions such as theme parks, shows and infrastructure which offer hosting of different events . . .the casinos will provide an important added value and there are hotels that are already preparing for what (casinos) … are going to provide.”

After the presentation and the swearing in of the presidents of the Working Committees of the committee Mr. Gosselin welcomed the new move saying that government control was vital for the new industry. “The casino industry is like everything else, if there is control it works so I do not see it as wrong, but rather as an opportunity that will give us more competitiveness in the Caribbean,” said Gosselin.
Meanwhile, Secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo, Laura Fernandez, said casinos would provide an added an incentive to the many attractions the area already has to offer saying that Cancun casinos would not be the main incentive for visitors to come to Cancun but would rather serve to enhance the industry. As a result she said that “the issue of casinos should not scare us.”

Maximo Garcia Rocha, Vice President of Working Committees of the AHCYPM said that approval of the law regulating the installation of casinos in Mexico could be a reality in the near future and that the local industry must be ready to support it.

There has been increasing interest in investing in hotels and casinos in tourist hotspots in Mexico with investors and operators pinning their hopes on the new gaming act. In February the leader of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals in Cancun, Miguel Mateos Angel Lemus said that there was interest from several operators in the US who would be interested in installing casinos in hotels in Cancun and along the Riviera Maya. Moves to install casinos have also been welcomed by The Mayor of Cancun, Paul Carrillo de Cáceres.

The proposals could be part of Mexico’s new Federal Betting and Raffles Law which was approved by the House of Representatives in December last year. The new gaming act could see Las Vegas style casino complexes being built in the Riviera Maya, Acapulco and Baja California in order to attract foreign investment into Mexico.