Go Mexico: Travel Outlook for 2009
Kitty Bean Yancey - USA Today
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Wallet-watching travelers will be taking fewer trips, waiting longer to book them in hopes of a deal and downscaling vacations.

Las Vegas will remain a big draw, and Mexico will be hotter than a chili pepper.

That's the outlook for 2009, according to travel analysts and providers and a survey of 547 agents, managers and agency owners with Travel Leaders (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates), out today.

Vegas is the No. 1 U.S. destination Americans are booking (as it was last year), the survey says, followed by Orlando. Perhaps fueled by Obama fever, the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial and a Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (No. 10) is more of a tourists' kind of town. It moved into the top 10 "for the first time in years," says Travel Leaders spokesman Steve Loucks.

Internationally, Caribbean cruises rule yet again, but dollar-stretching Mexico has five destinations in the top 10: Cancun, No. 2; Riviera Maya, No. 3; Puerto Vallarta, No. 4; Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, No. 9; and Mexican cruises (tied for No. 10). Additionally, some Caribbean cruises call at Mexican ports.

"You've got so many" new resorts in Mexico, and there are some exceptional values, Loucks says. He also cites increased interest in China, Mediterranean cruising and European river cruises.

At Apple Vacations, famed for value getaways in the Caribbean and elsewhere, Mexico remains popular. Huatulco on the Pacific Coast is an up-and-coming destination, with lots of new hotel rooms, says Apple marketing vice president Sandy Babin.

Jamaica is "getting a lot of renewed attention, most likely because of all the new hotels cropping up," she says. Well-regarded all-inclusive brands with a presence in Mexico and the Dominican Republic (such as Riu and Iberostar) have new Jamaican properties and offer rates as low as $1,000 a person a week, including airfare and all you can eat and drink.

Meanwhile, well-heeled travelers are "taking a step back" and downgrading, says Roland Largay, chairman of Southbury, Conn.-based Largay Travel, who recently was named agent of the year by Travel Agent magazine.

"The people who were going to South America are going to the Caribbean now," he says. "Cancun has been selling well, and instead of Crystal Cruises, it's Holland America."

Rudi Steele of Rudi Steele Travel in Dallas, another high-end agency, maintains that the rich "are still going." His clients are looking to "take a break from the constant doom and gloom" and booking England more now that the dollar is better vs. the pound, as well as Morocco and South America (Patagonia, Buenos Aires and São Paulo are among in-demand destinations).

"Just try to get a seat on a (Dallas) non-stop to Buenos Aires, Santiago or São Paulo," he says. "They're packed."

Other findings in the Travel Leaders 2009 trends survey:

• 90.5% say customers are cutting back on travel compared with the same period last year.

• 57.4% say clients are cutting back on the length of their trips.

• 31.5% say airfares on 2009 corporate bookings are equal to or lower than those in 2008.

• 81.6% say clients are trading down when it comes to hotels.

• 84.3% recommend Mexico as the best value outside the USA, followed by cruises (61.1%) and the Caribbean (43.9%). Agents were asked to pick up to three places.

• Despite the rise of the dollar against the euro and pound, 77% say bookings to Europe are even or down for 2009.

• 71% say travelers are saving money by staying at all-inclusive resorts; 75.7% say vacationers are being more flexible with travel dates to get better prices.

"If you are flexible in your travel plans, there are going to be more soft spots (in hotel rates) everywhere," says Robert Mandelbaum, director of research information services at PKF Hospi- tality Research. He says consumers will have more luck this year negotiating better rates and extras at hurting hotels. "It pays to ask," he says.

When it comes to flights, Tom Parsons, chief of Bestfares.com, says airfares to Europe and elsewhere are coming down, and so are fuel surcharges.

He also advises keeping an open mind when deciding where to go and looking for good hotel/air packages, which can save a lot of money.

2009 "is going to be a travelers' market," he predicts.

LORENS 50th birthday party at latitude 21

Mexico Establishes Eight New Nature Reserves
Presidencia de la República
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Mexico City - On the subject of the conservation of Natural Protected Areas, Environment and Natural Resource Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada declared that the decree establishing eight new Nature Reserves, covering an area of 1,109,639 ha, has enabled Federal Government to meet 37% of its goal for this administration.

He said that Mexico currently has 166 federal nature reserves, accounting for over 23.1 million ha, in other words, nearly 12% of national territory, placing Mexico at the forefront of Latin America in the care and promotion of nature reserves.

He stressed that President Felipe Calderón’s government is not only committed to increasing the number of Nature Reserves in the country but also to ensuring that all of them have a management plan and sufficient resources for their optimal operation, since there is no point in establishing these areas and then abandoning them due to lack of resources, as happens in Central America and Asia and even in the state of California in the U.S.

He explained that mechanisms are being promoted in Mexico that will help maintain these areas, such as payment for environmental services, which in addition to ensuring conservation, constitutes a source of income that will improve the living standards of those resident in these areas.

Elvira Quesada explained that as part of its conservation tasks, Semarnat is working on programs to protect endangered species, in conjunction with the National Commission of Nature Reserves (CONANP), organized civil society, academics, functionaries from various government sectors and organizations, private enterprise and communities.

Another important aspect Elvira Quesada highlighted was the agreement to create the Inter-Secretarial Commission for the Sustainable Management of Seas and Coasts (June 13, 2008) that will coordinate the environmental arrangement of these territorial spaces, in order to ensure their permanence and the sustainable use of their natural resources.

Source: Media and Communications Office. Information Department. Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources

Mexico Works to Protect Endangered Sea of Cortez Porpoise
Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources
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During the first two years of government, President Felipe Calderón's administration assigned over $174 million pesos to promote actions to protect the vaquita porpoise, $157 million of which were allocated to conservation and technological and productive reconversion, and $25 million to actions to preserve biodiversity in the Vaquita Sanctuary.

Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada explained that these resources have enabled 836 boats to stop fishing in the Protection Polygon and engage in other kinds of activities, and permitted the cancellation of 1,044 fishing permits, making 1,200 square kilometers of the Vaquita Sanctuary free of fishing and incidental capture.

These activities have been carried out in addition to the inspection and surveillance work undertaken on a permanent basis by the Naval Secretariat and the Federal Environmental Protection Bureau.

The government official added that the National Institutes of Ecology and Fishing engage in experimental work to test new, alternative forms of fishing that will not harm the vaquita and protect the environment.

These include the prototype of a light drag net, a net enabling larger species to escape and traps for catching scale fish and shrimp.

As part of Semarnat's commitment to ensure the care and protection of endangered species, Elvira Quesada reported that the Acoustic Monitoring Cruise Ship recently observed a group of vaquitas on the coast of the state of Sonora, a crucial phenomenon, since there have been no records of the mammal in this part of the Upper Gulf of California for the past ten years.

The monitoring, carried out by Mexican, U.S., Canadian, English, German and Japanese experts, showed that the pod of porpoise detected is in good health and has not registered a decline in its population, estimated at 150.

He explained that the cruise ship's crew includes researchers from the Marine Mammals' Program of the National Institute of Ecology (INE); as well as specialists from the Southwest Fisheries Science Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Center (NMFS).

He said that at the request of fishermen from San Felipe, and with the help of INE personnel, discussion and analysis workshops were held in the municipalities of San Felipe, Golfo de Santa Clara, and Puerto Peñasco (all in the Upper Gulf of California), where it was agreed that fishing activities would have sustainable planning, with ecological equilibrium for a period of 50 years.

Lastly, the Semarnat director said that joint work is being carried out with the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishing and Food; the governments and universities of the state of Baja California and Sonora; the Intercultural Center of Studies of Deserts and Oceans; and Pronatura to ensure that the pledges made are shared by the three orders of government and the scientific community, in order to advance towards the conservation and recovery of the species.

Press Release: Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, December 26, 2008, Mexico City

Translation Presidency of the Republic [edited

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An Exclusive Bed & Breakfast in a quaint, Mexican beach town.

Tropical Manor House

www.tropicalmanorhouse.com

Opening Promotion

Canadian dollars Accepted at Par with US dollars

All Reservations for one week or more, will receive 2 complimentary Relaxation Massages (1 Hour each) to enjoy on our ocean view terrace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email: tropicalmanorhouse@gmail.com

Tel: 327-274-3516

 

 

 

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Start the new year with your amigos - please join us for this important meeting, where we will be electing our new officers! GOOD buffet breakfast for only $60 pesos. The meeting starts at 9:30 am and should adjourn by 11:30 am. Location is IXTA restaurant at Lazaro Cardenas Number 500 (across from La Vida development). Hope to see you there! (Please bear with me if you receive this twice - I am in the process of merging the 2008 and 2009 members, so if you have recently renewed, you may get this twice) - Karen Knapp, VP

 

AMIGOS DE BUCERIAS ANNUAL MEETING

JANUARY 3, 2009

AGENDA

 

WELCOME/CALL TO ORDER

MINUTES FROM LAST MEMBERSHIP MEETING

TREASURER REPORT

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

T-shirts

Membership dues

Speaker Night

Artwalk

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Executive committee-

Amigos de Bucerias year-in-review

Government Relations

Special Needs Fund

Party with A Purpose

 

ASSOCIATE PROGRAM REPORTS

Recyclers of Bucerias

Bucerias Bilingual Community Center

Amigos Y Vecinos

PEACE

 

OLD BUSINESS

Membership Survey

 

NEW BUSINESS

Tent for Recyclers of Bucerias

 

ADJOURN

 

 

AMIGOS DE BUCERIAS MEETING

FOR THE PURPOSE OF ELECTING OFFICERS

 

CALL TO ORDER

 

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

 

ADJOURN

 

 

 

 

Buy your Fashion show  ticket on line now! $25 us

 

 

 Learn Spanish Today  - Learn Spanish on-line for free, using interactive audio/visual lessons.

Photography by Bill Bell  to view Mexico Photography click below

Colonial Cities and Towns

 

Archeological Sites

 

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Hello to all..
I am back and I have searched and she has been spotted around the beach from the cocos to the residential area.... today Sunday.
so please if you see her please contact us at the Taquero del Año (restaurant ovewr Avenue Sol Nuevo, a block away from the church going to the 'Cameron Hotel) or the (327) 2740080. there in guayabitos. It seems it is really hard for people to catch her so keeping her in a spot while we get there has to be the best choice...
I will really appreciate any assistance you can give us
Thanks in advance
ERika
 

 

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Hi Dot

Would you be able to advertise these items for sale for us?

 

We have done some renovations in one of our apartments again.  We took out two twin beds and put in a queen bed so we have the following for sale:

2 individual mattresses

Blue Hotelero orthopaedic style

Excellent condition

$750.00 pesos each

 

Beautiful material for curtains or tablecloths from Guadalajara

Blue – 8 meters

Gold – 6 meters

Green – 2 meters

Paid $44.00 pesos per meter – for sale for $35.00 pesos a meter

 

Several sets of beige curtains for sale – different sizes $60.00 pesos per set.

 

Please call 327-274-0776 if you are interested. 

 

Thanks so much

Bob & Linda Gibbs

Casita de La Penita

www.casitadelapenita.ws

Lazaro Cardenas #36

La Penita de Jaltemba

 

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San Pancho AA

Alanon Monday at 5:00pm, CoDA Wednesday at 5:00pm, and AA Friday at 6:30pm in San Pancho in the museum on main street, between Galeria Corazon and San Pancho Cafe. Info at devasaya@gmail.com email or 311-258-4243. 

Speak Spanish - That Should be Your Goal!

Learn Spanish Today   Make 2009 the year that you learn Spanish

Can you Speak Spanish? How long have you been studying Spanish? Between high school classes, college classes and you own efforts you could easily have a couple years already under your belt. During this time you have likely built up a good Spanish vocabulary, along with a basic understanding of Spanish verb conjugation. But can you speak Spanish?

Why is speaking Spanish so hard? Would you feel comfortable approaching a native Spanish speaker and starting a conversation? Why not? Why is it so hard to speak Spanish even after years of study?

Beginning high school and college Spanish classes, as well as most self study Spanish courses start off by teaching vocabulary and verb conjugation. You practice speaking, but the focus is on the individual word or phrase. Lists of words are memorized and tests are given on verb conjugation. So when it comes time to speak, the words and phrases are separate in your mind. It becomes a matter of trying to pull all the pieces together and form them all into a sensible sentence, not just speaking.

The key to becoming more comfortable in speaking situations is to practice and learn the sentences as a whole, not in separate pieces. This way when you are trying to remember what to say, the whole sentence pops in your mind, not just one word. You will speak Spanish more correctly, more fluently and more confidently than ever before.

The Visual Link Spanish Course allows you to utilize this effective way of learning and practice speaking Spanish. In our free online demo lessons, you can see how we utilize these strategies to truly teach you to speak Spanish. You will be able to recall everything you learn and words will come into your mind as a complete sentence not separate individual words. You will already be on your way to speaking Spanish more fluently and more confidently.

Before You Go - Learn Spanish For Free

 

 

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