Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Aurelio López Rocha of the State Tourism Board recently reported that, regrettably, Los Muertos Pier will not be completed before the start of the 2012 Tianguis Turístico on March 25. According to Jalisco State Secretary, Dr. Víctor Manuel González, a lack of economic resources lies behind the slow progress on the construction of the new pier.

"Though there have been federal funds allocated for this work, they have not been sufficient, nor timely," González said. "However, the north coast region of Jalisco is perhaps the most improved region in the state for many reasons, and the touristic investment has already been put to use," he clarified.

"Hotels have been constructed despite the economic crisis, the Swine flu scare and security concerns, the economy has not fallen, it has grown, and hotel occupancy is rising little by little... it has increased by 15% over the last four years. What is more, we have been working on several other important projects, one of which is improved access from the South, towards El Tuito... we are almost ready to start building the bridge on Avenida Federación."

Regarding the drop in International cruise ship arrivals he said, "we know they are for obvious reasons and we have to make some efforts to recuperate, even increase, the number of cruise ship arrivals to Vallarta. We need to find better strategies to approach the Cabo Corrientes, Tomatlán and San Sebastián del Oeste regions, where we have surpluses."

"Even though we have improved the percentage of hotel occupancies and made improvements in various locations, tourism in Puerto Vallarta is not at its peak... it has not improved as much as we would have liked, so we need to strengthen our efforts to bring the tourists back," he added.

For his part, López Rocha regrets that the Los Muertos Pier project will not be completed before the Tianguis Turístico, but said, "it won't be completely finished, but almost... it will be missing some details... like the handrails," he said.