Tourism up this summer - travelweekly.com

"The Sun Triangle, the tourist area on Mexico’s Pacific coast formed by the cities of Acapulco in the south, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo in the north and Taxco in the center, enjoyed its highest summer tourism numbers in the past 10 years...Numbers for Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo increased by 16.4%, and occupancy averaged 68.2%, also greater than last year’s...Tourist spending in Guerrero in August was up 36.9% [we helped, we enjoyed our 15th visit in August - but it seemed pretty quiet in Zihua? Although that was only our 3rd visit in summer], the highest jump in the past five years. Although the largest percentage of visitors to the state of Guerrero remains domestic, U.S. and Canadian travelers are proving to be an important market..."

This is simply not true, and you've only to ask anyone in Zihuatanejo or Ixtapa or Acapulco or Taxco.

Unfortunately in their zeal to keep their jobs and please their bosses, too many public servants publish what we know are simply false numbers, possibly simply made up. We call them cifras alegres or "happy figures". Usually the tourism-related departments such as Sefotur and Sectur produce these numbers that simply don't jibe with the reality on the ground, as you noticed and commented on: "it seemed pretty quiet in Zihua".

The occupancy being referred to is most likely persons arriving by bus, what we call "social tourism". These mostly represent folks with no money to spend and who bring most of their foodstuffs with them. Many of them even hock their jewelry to take their vacations. They don't stay in the better hotels, they try to crowd 10 to 15 folks to a room, they don't buy in the local shops or boutiques, and while they are certainly welcome and we're glad to have them, they really don't represent any economic benefit for the great majority of locals. Just recently there was a fight between security guards at the Barceló and a family of tourists trying to sneak relatives into the hotel for a dinner banquet. Even the larger hotels who lower their all-included rates more than most Zihuatanejo hotels can afford to are paying a price for the cheaper tourists they are helping to attract. They are part of the problem for cheapening Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa and attracting more folks who leave behind more garbage than money.