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 Travel & Outdoors | March 2008 
Baja Counts on Spring-Break Boom
 Sandra Dibble - San Diego Union-Tribune
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| | San Diego State students Stephanie LaHaye (left) and Sarah Steiner checked out a jewelry and hat vendor on the beach this week in Rosarito Beach. (Charlie Neuman/Union-Tribune) | 
| | Spring breakers on the balcony of Papas & Beer Beach Club cheered the "King and Queen of the Beach" contest this week in Rosarito Beach. (Charlie Neuman/Union-Tribune) | 
| Rosarito Beach Tourist Police Officers Jesus Soqui Galaz (left) and Javier Paredes kept watch on Boulevard Benito Juarez, near the Festival Plaza Hotel. The city of 140,000 is counting on thousands of student tourists. (Charlie Neuman/Union-Tribune)
Spring break facts
When returning to the United States from Mexico, U.S. citizens must present either a passport or proof of identity, such as a driver's license, and proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate.
Passports will be mandatory in June 2009.
U.S. citizens who don't present the proper documents won't be prevented from returning, but they may be delayed or sent to secondary inspection for questioning, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say.
For tourist assistance in Mexico, call 078. To reach police, call 066 or 911 from most cell phones and ask to be connected to an English-speaking operator.
U-T Multimedia: For a video about spring break in Rosarito Beach, click HERE. | | |
Reports of violence, weak U.S. economy have hurt tourism
The spring breakers are assembled by the broad beach at the center of town, descending on taco stands and on clubs that pound out hip-hop rhythms, shuffling in boisterous clusters down the sidewalks of Boulevard Benito Juarez.
After months of plunging sales, Rosarito Beach, a city of 140,000, is counting on thousands of student visitors from the United States to help it regain its place as a popular recreation spot for Californians.
Battered by reports of violence and police corruption, Baja California's tourist destinations have been fighting back with new security measures and promotional campaigns. With this week's convergence of spring break and the Christian Holy Week, many see the coming days as a crucial opportunity.
Tourism promoters in Rosarito Beach have seen some encouraging signs this week, as buses pull in from Fresno, Los Angeles and Las Vegas packed with eager visitors such as Alicia Robinson, 18, a graphics major carrying a six-pack of beer she had just purchased.
Three days of revelry awaited the University of Nevada freshman, and the possibilities included bikini contests, chicken fights, foam parties, beach volleyball and a concert with the renowned U.S. disc jockey DJ AM.
The much-anticipated arrival of “los spring breakers,” as they are commonly known here, follows months of record-low sales for Rosarito Beach. Statewide, the number of visitors declined from 20.3 million in 2006 to 18.6 million last year. In Rosarito Beach, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, street vendors – everyone has felt the pinch in a city where seven in 10 jobs are tied to tourism.
Business owners say it's not just the reports of crime that have turned away tourists, but also the U.S. economic downturn and the stiffer proof-of-citizenship requirement at the border.
Such concerns were far from the minds of William Phillips and a dozen of his friends, giddy with excitement and beer this week after driving from Los Angeles. “I can come here and get away from it all, put all the worries of life behind,” said Phillips, 21, a real estate major at California State University Fresno.
A couple of blocks away, Ben Gwozdz spoke over the whistling and blaring speakers at Club Vibe. “I love it, love it,” said the 21-year-old finance major from the University of Arizona. “I like the atmosphere, and the people are genuinely nice.”
Just in time for the visitors, Rosarito Beach has revamped its tourist police, creating a force of 20 officers who have passed rigorous background checks, officials said. In addition, more than 300 volunteer citizen watchdogs have agreed to report any mistreatment of tourists, and the city is offering 24-hour assistance to any visitor confronted with legal problems.
“We are perfectly prepared,” Mayor Hugo Torres said this month at a City Hall news conference. “Foreigners who come here will see that they are well-treated.”
Rosarito Beach “is a great opportunity to experience spring break in Mexico at a very affordable price,” said Chris Carter, chief executive officer of Costa Mesa-based Summer Winter Action Tours, or SWAT.
SWAT and San Diego-based Mexico Destinations have booked thousands of students. Carter said 3,000 people have purchased three-day packages starting at $249 that include hotel rooms, buffets, drink specials, entertainment and the presence of security staff.
Running from mid-March to early April, spring break coincides with the Christian Holy Week, and Baja California officials estimate that as many as 200,000 travelers could be hitting the road during this period.
Tourism counts for about 12 percent of Baja California's overall revenue and 9 percent of its employment. Rosarito Beach looks to tourism for its economic survival, with 65 percent of its revenue tied to it. More than 90 percent of its tourism base is from California, said Torres, who owns the Rosarito Beach Hotel.
With more than 2,000 hotel rooms and 5,000 condos for rent, Rosarito Beach could receive as many as 25,000 visitors on the four-day weekend that began Thursday, said Raúl Aragón Castro, the Baja California Tourism Secretariat's representative in Rosarito Beach.
Despite the arrival of student vacationers, the holiday appeared off to a fairly quiet start, and on Thursday the average hotel occupancy hovered close to 40 percent. But Aragón predicted that number would double by today, with the arrival of more student groups and families from both sides of the border.
For Rosarito Beach, 2008 started especially slowly, with business down 40 percent from last year.
Although some merchants were doing brisk business with the spring breakers, others said they saw little difference. At her stand in the Mercado de Artesanías, Angelica Heredia said the student crowd had little interest in her colorfully embroidered Mexican blouses. “We're hoping to see families come this weekend, because otherwise, we're going to have to shut down.”
Many link Baja California's drop in tourism to news of violence connected to organized crime, along with reports of attacks on tourists and police extortion.
Since late last year, federal, state and municipal officials have scored key arrests in their campaign against criminal organizations and the corrupt law enforcement officers who help them. The battle has taken violent turns, and Rosarito Beach is no exception.
Tourism promoters take pains to point out that recent gunbattles have not occurred in tourist districts and that no major incidents against tourists have been reported in the region since mid-November. The city's mayor and others say they continue to suffer unjustly from the widespread publicity of past incidents. Some believe there has been a deliberate attempt to sully the region's image.
Many of this week's visitors said they were aware of the reports of crime but felt safe traveling in groups and staying in the main tourist areas.
“All of our parents are worried; they don't want us coming down,” said Matt Barker, 22, a recent San Diego State University business graduate who drove from Ventura County. He and five high school friends nursed margaritas one weekday afternoon at El Nido and lamented the lack of women, as five female friends who had planned to join them had bailed.
Across the street, Macho Tacos was about half full of young American customers late Wednesday afternoon. “For me, they're very important, because they come, they eat, they get to know Rosarito, and even though people say all they want to eat is tacos and more tacos, they are consuming,” said Reinaldo Tejeda, the restaurant's general manager and a Rosarito Beach native.
“I remember how pretty it once was, and how it got contaminated, and now how it's getting cleaned up bit by bit,” Tejeda said of Rosarito Beach. “People are taking great risks to bring back tourism.”
Sandra Dibble: sandra.dibble(at)uniontrib.com |
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