Tranquilidad AntiZIHpada

What is AlBlueFlag?

"No Al Blue Flag" is Spanish for "No to the Blue Flag". The Blue Flag is a designation used mostly by European travel agents to designate a beach as "clean" according to their standards. Several of the "rules" go against local customs and practices, and basically the result is it keeps poorer locals and visitors off these pseudo "exclusive" beaches as well as bans all pets, bonfires, cookouts or any glass containers such as a mayonnaise or mustard jars for making sandwiches for the family, or bottles of wine, beer or liquor in your cooler. The local government has been abusing the conditions of the pandemia to ban all foodstuffs, chairs and umbrellas from beaches, trying to force beachgoers to use beachfront restaurants or hotel installations, essentially banning poorer local families from Blue Flag beaches by making them feel unwelcome.

Europeans make up such a minor percentage of our tourists that there is no real justification for this designation. U.S. and Canadian tourists, who along with Mexicans make up the overwhelming majority of our tourists, have mostly never even heard of "certified clean beaches" or "Blue Flag beaches". It is a meaningless designation to them, and frankly as a local and pet lover I'd rather that people who refuse to go to beaches where people can take their pets went elsewhere instead of ruining the beach experience for locals and chasing away visitors who travel with their pets.

To date after over 10 years of Blue Flag in Ixtapa's Playa El Palmar I've not been able to confirm that Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa has received one single additional tourist due to any local Blue Flag designation, but I have documented a considerable number of people whom we have lost as visitors owing to the rules of the Blue Flag designation, some who were local property owners who sold and moved away, some who were yearly visitors who now go elsewhere, and many others simply inquiring before coming who decided not to come because they wanted to travel with their family pet. I believe we can keep our beaches clean and inviting without ruining the experience for anyone or running off tourists or locals.

We don't need outsiders telling us how to manage our beaches, and even less just so local politicians can pay political favors.