How Cancún became a tourist destination

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1969, Antonio Enríquez Savignac was given the go-ahead to transform a secluded Mexican island into a world-beating tourist destination.

The technocrat believed tourism was a cost effective solution for fixing the country's faltering economy.

He was given funding from the Mexican federal government to create infrastructure on the island, including an airport.

The resort would be called Cancún.

More than 50 years later, Cancún welcomes more than 20 million guests to its shores every year, with over 30,000 hotels scattered across the island.

However, the island has become a crime hotspot and there are major pollution problems in the area.

Antonio's son, Juan Enríquez, shares his memories with Matt Pintus.

(Photo: Cancún. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You don't need us to tell you there's a general election coming.
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0:47.1	Hello, you're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Matt Pintus. Today how a strip of secluded Mexican wilderness was transformed into one of the most popular holiday
0:51.8	destinations in the world.
0:56.5	Cancun welcomes more than 20 million tourists to its shores every year,
1:01.5	but it wasn't always that way. This is the story of the man who helped to build it.
1:11.3	The only way you could get the Gankon was to fly into a little tiny island.
1:16.0	That's Juan Enricas. He's remembering his first visit to a secret island off the shore of Quintanaru on the Caribbean coast of Mexico.
1:25.7	The year is 1968.
1:28.7	The first time I went it had 17 inhabitants
1:35.0	wonderful Maya man called Gabush and his 16 dogs
1:40.0	and that was the sum total of the population of the album.
1:42.8	Juan's father is Antonio Eriquez Savignac,
1:46.4	and it's his job to find a location
	...

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