Visitors and Tourists

First and foremost, Zihuatanejo should be for the locals. But most locals no longer go to any of the Blue Flag beaches because we don't feel welcome there, we don't like being treated like criminals having our belongings searched, and we don't like being forced to use the services of the expensive tourist-trap restaurants. When locals can no longer continue enjoying their community as they have for generations, then something is wrong, I don't care WHAT tourists think. They can pose in front of all the cement letters and statues and take all the photos they want. All I see is the Disneyfication of what used to be a true paradise that we should've taken better care of instead of allowing it to become overbuilt and overpaved, something land speculators from other places understandably won't agree with.

I distinguish between what I think of as “tourists” and what I think of as “visitors”. During the decades I came to the Zihuatanejo area annually I wanted to experience the Zihuatanejo that the local population chose for itself. If I wanted a water slide or a dolphinarium (not that I ever went to either), there was the nearby tourist destination of Ixtapa. Staying at a little place like the Hotel Suzy, or the Posada Citlali, or the Hotel Posada Míchel put me into the visitor’s experience of Zihuatanejo.

Walking Playa Principal, Playa La Madera, Playa La Ropa allowed me to enjoy the same beach’s that local people enjoyed. Last year I had lunch at a restaurant on Playa Ka Madera with some friends and relatives who were staying in Zihuatanejo. They loved it. Although I enjoyed it elegant food in fancy surroundings, the beach itself seemed almost sterile. I harkened back to walking on a vibrant beach alive with children playing, adults in the shade of beach umbrellas, and local foods.

This is not to say that I was never a tourist but for that experience we went to Ixtapa, staying in the long-gone Aristos, then a variety of other hotels.

It used to be that Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo could legitimately advertise “One destination; two experiences”. I fear that the “two experiences” are being lost as Zihuatanejo tries to emulate Ixtapa being a place for “tourists” rather than “visitors”.