Baja Infotheque Network

This is all about the US economy – what’s the connection to Baja and Mexico?? Well, is their not the saying: “If the American economy coughs the Mexican economy has a flu” or such?? Woth all the positive thinking and hopes: does not look so good at all to the editor. Look at the whole picture…. Does a 20% occupation around xmas at one of the main resort areas in Mexico, Loscabos ring a bell?? How long will the living in self denial within the Baja business people continue until they think of plan “B” ??? One is wondering when observing some of the actions that are going on within some industry. Noticeable in the so called ‘luxury” real estate industry…
The US Commerce Department said Thursday durable goods orders, excluding transportation, slipped 0.6 percent last month, but overall orders jumped as civilian aircraft bookings surged 126 percent. Separately, the number of people filing initial claims for jobless aid rose for a second straight week last week, topping analysts’ expectations, although the figures were likely affected by snowstorms that blanketed parts of the country. (more…)

Interesting reading, in particular when considering the blown out of proportion “lifestyle” area around Loscabos. We all see how the recession did affect that area and the people living and working there. (Yeah, the editor does know: we just see things NOT the right way and without having a vision….. sure…!!) Luxury hotels with $1,000-a-night room rates and extravagant resorts may face a tougher recovery than the rest of the industry. “The most over-the-top excesses will probably be a long time — if ever– coming back,” Marriott President Arne Sorenson told the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit. He drew a distinction between these hotels and the typical Ritz-Carlton luxury hotels the company operates. Marriott’s other brands include its namesake properties and Courtyards. Sorenson added that some projects in the Caribbean, which tend to be smaller and partly rely on residences, “may never come back” because they rely on the kind of lavish spending that has gone out of vogue with travelers. (more…)

This is a interesting report, however we like too emphasize that the described circumstances in NO WAY reflect conditions at Baja California or the majority of Mexico! Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, hit perhaps its lowest point in years of violence when suspected drug gang hitmen burst in on a party of high school students in January and killed 15 people, most of them teenagers. Kidnappings and extortion’s are also rampant as drug gangs seek extra income, despite a government security crackdown.
“I fled to El Paso when a gang tried to kidnap me last year,” said the head of a cross-border trucking firm who declined to be named for safety reasons. “They came for me but I had a change in my schedule so I wasn’t home and they kidnapped my neighbor instead,” he added.
Once one of Mexico’s fastest growing cities, Ciudad Juarez is now blighted with shuttered restaurants and shops. (more…)