2023-07-10 14:41:44
It is a colorful town with colonial houses, surrounded by steep cliffs that are lost in the clouds. Calm ? Not really. Tepoztlan teems; on the 500 meters of the avenue du Tepozteco, about thirty stands have been set up: margaritas, mojitos, shots of tequila, and above all, offered in glasses of all kinds, including in the shape of a phallus, “micheladas”, a beer cocktail flavored with lemon and hot sauces. The sun goes down and the alcohol goes to the heads of the young people who come to spend the last weekend of June there.
Tepoztlan is a “magical village”, a “pueblo magico”, named after the label created in 2001 by the Mexican Ministry of Tourism. Originally, the goal was to “take advantage of the country’s natural and cultural resources to create jobs and encourage public and private investment, to improve the level of well-being of the population”. At first, it worked: stamped “magical village”, the colonial city of Real de Catorce, in the center of the country, saw tourism explode by 200% and the hotel offer by 400%. In Tequila, birthplace of the spirit of the same name, visitors have increased from 18,000 in 2003 to 419,785 in 2019.
Mass tourism has destroyed the village atmosphere
At the end of June, 45 new municipalities joined the program, bringing the catalog to 177. But this label, materialized by the name of the locality in multicolored letters on the central squares of these villages, has above all brought the misdeeds of mass tourism in this country to the wide range of “attractions”: colonial towns, pre- Hispanics and a rare diversity of landscapes.
An hour and a half from Mexico City, Tepoztlan was one of the first to join this club. Today, “Tepoz” has become in the collective imagination the symbol of Mexican folklore, with its baroque church, its brightly colored shacks and its narrow streets crowded with tourists wearing wide-brimmed hats, ready to draw their hashtags who will reference their photos on Instagram.
“There’s nothing magical about Tepoz anymore! launches, annoyed, José Trinidad Solis, municipal employee at the church of La Santisima. Pueblos magicos have become Disneylands! And the tourists who come from Mexico think that we must be at their service! » From now on, the inhabitants are overwhelmed during the day by well-to-do urbanites, and in the evening by an inebriated youth. Every weekend, the rangers return from the paths that surround the municipality with bags full of waste thrown into nature by hikers.
This unbridled tourism has swept away the authenticity of the places, which are being sanitized to please holidaymakers. “The village atmosphere disappears”regrets Vanessa Garcia, an activist in favor of indigenous peoples and resident of San Cristobal de las Casas, a ” Magic Town “ of 220,000 inhabitants in the indigenous south of Mexico. “The visitor comes for a preconceived image that corresponds to social networks. He leaves the capital to find himself with the same services as in mainland France and to meet the same types of people there. There is a total disconnection with the locals. »
“A lot of products come from China! »
Gisela Cantaro, manager of a local handicraft shop, was positive about the program when it was created. “There was reasonable tourism that benefited the natives. But hardly any store is run by a Tepozteco anymore and a lot of products come from China! » Victim of its own success, “Tepoz” has seen chain stores and big fortunes seize land and walls; the natives could not resist the blows of the wild construction of properties with swimming pools.
Tourists in a street in Tepoztlan, March 12, 2023. A victim of its own success, this city about sixty kilometers south of Mexico City, a former haunt of the Zapatistas, is now beset by tourists and has not resisted construction wild of properties with swimming pools. / DANIEL SLIM/AFP
Who remembers that in the late 1990s Tepoztlan was still a haunt Zapatistas, this movement that defends the indigenous peoples of Mexico? Tepoz the red, Tepoz the rebel is a thing of the past. The mobilization of the inhabitants and the activists of the territory succeeded in slowing down the construction of a cable car and a golf club, but the road which was only a simple departmental is now a tarmac highway; on Sunday, to return to Mexico, the 60 km are sometimes done in three hours.
The same spectacle is observed in most ” Magic towns “. Located on an artificial lake, Valle de Bravo, labeled since 2005, is a cluster of second homes for residents of the capital, just two hours from it. On weekends, during the holidays, 4X4s brush against each other in the alleys. “A typical phenomenon of these destinations, two towns are then formed, explains Cecilia Cota, public policy researcher. That of the owners who live or have a house in the center, and another outside, those of the workers of hotels and restaurants. »
Airbnb’s “Magic Hosts”
To the west of Mexico, Ajijic is also undergoing the same gentrification. In this former fishing hamlet built on the shores of a lagoon, signs in English set the tone: the public is now very American. Here, they are retirees, but elsewhere, the confinement due to the coronavirus has attracted thousands of Westerners who have come to work in an idyllic setting and take advantage of the advantageous cost of living.
In Tulum, in southwestern Mexico, the fishing huts have disappeared, as has the Mayan language; luxury hotels now stand facing the Caribbean Sea, and the archaeological site of the ancient Mayan city is only a cultural excuse to come and party on the beach, often among white people – Mexicans are rare there .
Airbnb wanted to ride the wave by joining forces with the label. The apartment rental platform launched a fashionable campaign in March 2021, that of a “responsible tourism” promoting the “backpacker trips” and offering circuits through the “pueblos magicos”. The number of accommodations in these sites has increased by 170% between 2018 and 2021. According to the platform which flatters its “magical hosts”two out of ten available homes in Mexico are in a magical village.
Local residents come out the losers
Financially, belonging to Magic towns has long seemed like a holy grail for municipalities, especially since the government has invested heavily. But with the budget cuts carried out by the current administration, times are tough. One hour from “Tepoz”, facing the Popocatepetl volcano and its ash plumes, the inhabitants of Tlayacapan are still waiting for the former convent of Saint-Jean Baptiste, damaged by the 2017 earthquake, to be repaired. “Sometimes you wonder where the money is going”slips Cecilia Cota, convinced that the corruption inherent in the country is also practiced by the beneficiary municipalities.
“These gains have not led to a reduction in inequalitiessighs the researcher. The beneficiaries are the investors, the foreign owners. The natives are almost not winners. » Especially since in Tepoz, as in other “magical” localities, many very wealthy landowners appropriate water from groundwater using private wells. Droughts and deforestation due to urbanization are other scourges. For Cecilia Cota, “We have to ask ourselves what type of tourism we need, and in whose hands? “.
Cities poorly adapted to population growth
“You would think there was no clear long-term plan or project when they created the pueblos magicos”born Jose Trinidad Solis, in Tepoztlan. “There has been no urban development with population growth, local government seems outdated. » Outside, the speakers spit out reggaeton; it is not noon.
Behind the church, a metallic shear is heard. A steel structure emerges, a new, more modern market that will replace the old stalls in the main square. “Traders will not let it goassures Tonatiuh Rodriguez, activist at the community assembly of Tepoztlan. They want to stay there, they have always worked here. » A new market more practical, but much less magical.
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A galloping tourism
In 2019, Mexicans made 258 million visits in a Magic Town.
When the label was created in 2001, Mexico had 4. They then increased to 29 in 2006, 84 in 2012, 122 in 2018 and 177 in 2023.
The equivalent of 75 million euros was allocated to these municipalities in 2013, 100 million in 2015, 28 million in 2017. In 2019, the budget was replaced by other so-called “priority” investments in tourism.
In 2020, Mexico was the 3rd most visited country in the world with around 25 million tourists, an unprecedented ranking due to the indulgence of the authorities regarding the closure of borders during the Covid-19.
Before Covid, tourism accounted for 8.7% of Mexico’s GDP. It is one of the three pillars of the country’s economy along with oil and remittances (money sent by the Mexican diaspora living in the United States).
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