What will hurt Cancun more, the flu or bad beaches

With all the talk about the Flu and other problems, the one thing I found depressing and worrying during our last visit to Cancun is the state of the beaches.

For months I have been asking about the conditions the beaches are in. It wasn't until we went in mid April that the sad state of the beaches became clear. with 90% of the beach non usable because of the rocks and lack of sand Cancun will suffer more if this situation is not corrected. I for one have my fingers crossed that the Mexican Govt starts paying attention to this area and soon. I am looking forward to our visit next year, but, if the conditions have not improved, I think it will be time to find another vacation spot.

I am not sure what the problem is and why the beaches erroded so bad but I think tourism will not survive in Cancun, and it will not be because of the flu, but the lack of a good beach.

Is anyone aware of what might be planned to fix this if anything, or did the Govt and hotel industry decide to abndon Cancun.

For those who aren't sure what I'm talking about, here is a link to a video i uploaded to youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkESwqO2mk

All the beaches in Cancun don't look like the one in front of the Royals. My daughter and her husband were at the Sun Palace last week and this is the beach they enjoyed. This isn't their video but it's what it was like last week and in the pictures they took.

Hi Karen;
We stayed at the Ryl Islander. When you walked south (towards the Hilton and club med) the only beach you find is in front of the Hilton and close to Club med. When you go north, I wlaked from the Islander to the Sands one morning and the only beach that was not mostly rocks and I could use was the Sands. Past the Sands the beaches were also in bad shape.
When go further north towards CIC, the beach conditions get better since the wind is not as strong.
Melia, marriott, etc...all these hotels along the way had roped off their stairs towards the beach to avoid accidents.

Jameson: How about where the new Westin Lagunamar timeshare -- do they have sand?

Cathyb said:

Jameson: How about where the new Westin Lagunamar timeshare -- do they have sand?

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Sorry CathyB, not sure where this place is but I assume it is north of the Sands. I attached a picture which may show the conditions in that area.

Jameson18 said:

When you walked south (towards the Hilton and club med) the only beach you find is in front of the Hilton and close to Club med.

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I think Sun Palace is further south beyond the Hilton. It's one of the first hotels you'd come to coming from the airport.

Several recent hurricanes and tropical storms have slammed Cancun's man-made beaches. It's man vs nature...and nature appears to be winning in Cancun. You can't destroy natural buffer ecosystems like mangrove swamps to put in resort hotels and man-made beaches and expect that nature somehow will cooperate with man's lofty ambitions. Nature always wins in the end.

The beach by the Casa Maya is great. Being on the north bay side the storms if anything improved the beaches there.

Cathyb said:

Jameson: How about where the new Westin Lagunamar timeshare -- do they have sand?

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Just returned from the Lagunamar on April 19th. The beach was about as large as the image that Jameson posted but right about where the end of the lounge chair is in the photo there was a huge drop in the sand from the tides. As you walked into the ocean there was another large drop. It was so rough that we went in for all of 1 min. While holding on to my husband I was pushed down by the waves and my 17 yr old was also pushed down. We could not stay in the ocean any longer. The pool temps were great but we really went there for the ocean and beach. We were disappointed. On our last day we took the ferry to Isla Mujeres for the calm water and lack of wind. That was the most relaxing day! The beach at the Lagunamar was definitely not like what is shown at the Sun Palace.

I am curious if anyone knows what the Govt or any other body is doing about this if anything. Or if any of the resorts have provided some answers. All I got when I asked the concierge at the Royal Resorts was, yes it is terrible, maybe you should check out the Royal Hacienda. Does this mean there are no plans to fix the state of the beaches.

Jameson18 said:

I am curious if anyone knows what the Govt or any other body is doing about this if anything. Or if any of the resorts have provided some answers. All I got when I asked the concierge at the Royal Resorts was, yes it is terrible, maybe you should check out the Royal Hacienda. Does this mean there are no plans to fix the state of the beaches.

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I think Mother Nature is the only one that can really fix it. The gov tried once and it didn't hold.

Jameson18 said:

I am not sure what the problem is and why the beaches erroded so bad but I think tourism will not survive in Cancun, and it will not be because of the flu, but the lack of a good beach.

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I think you're being precipitous. I don't know about the natural hydraulics in Cancun. But I've seen our world famous beach in Carmel completely scoured out after some bad winter storms. I'm talking about it looking like the entire mile of beach was dredged out 10+ feet, down to rock. And I've seen it recover in one season.

This type of occurrence can be completely natural. I'm not saying whether or not it is at Cancun; but my assumption would be that it's natural and will rectify itself if left alone.

-Bob