Donkey Goes Dry : Tourism Still a Victim of Mexico Quake

The amount that Francis, the beer-guzzling donkey, gets to drink these days pretty much reflects the state of tourism in and around Mexico City during the past month.

“Before the earthquake, he was performing all the time,” said Lucio Oliva, owner of the Calendario Azteca souvenir shop, where Francis’ tippling helps lure curious customers.

“But since then, maybe one or two buses stop here a day, where eight or nine came before. Our business is way off.” As a result, Francis is getting less of his favorite beverage.

Fewer Tourists in City

Since the Sept. 19 temblor, a sharp drop in the number of tourists has been evident throughout Mexico City. Taxi stands are full of idle cabs, souvenir shops are empty of customers, and business in restaurants that tourists frequent has declined.

Mexican tourist authorities are battling the decline with a big public relations push.

Television commercials for Mexican tourism recently returned to the air in the United States. Newspaper ads north of the border proclaim that many major hotels here are open and offering their usual full range of comforts and entertainment. Groups of government and hotel officials and travel agents are preparing to barnstorm the United States, Europe and Latin America to build up business for the coming winter season.

The stakes are high. Tourism is Mexico’s second-largest earner of foreign exchange after petroleum, last year bringing in more than $2 billion from abroad.

Thousands of people are employed as guides, bellboys, maids, waiters, drivers, curio salesman and in other tourist-dependent jobs. About 3,000 hotel workers are estimated to have lost their jobs just from the destruction of several Mexico City hotels during the quake.

Hotel business is reportedly off not only in Mexico City but also in coastal resorts that were not affected by the earthquake. “It’s not fair,” one government tourism official said. “The image of Mexico is now of fallen hotels and, really, that’s not what it’s like.”

The government’s strategy for the moment seems to be to accentuate the positive.

“Yes, there was a dip in traffic to Mexico,” Guillermo Grimm, undersecretary of tourism, said. “But tourism is coming back rapidly.”

Grimm noted that roads and airports were not affected by the quake and that international telephone communication is slowly being restored.

Conventions Rescheduling

He said that many conventions that were postponed are being rescheduled and that tourist revenue this year will fall only slightly below last year’s total. “People are returning and seeing that the restaurants are functioning, the sights are still the same.”

But, sometimes, the effort to paint a rosy picture of the tourist scene results in information that is less than credible.

One high government functionary told a reporter that no guests had died in the Continental Hotel, where the top few floors of two wings collapsed, and that the hotel probably could be repaired. But at the Continental, a spokesman said that 10 guests had died and that the hotel would be demolished.

In any case, the official optimism is not matched on the street, where workers in all parts of the tourist industry are bemoaning the slowdown.

‘We Are the Forgotten’

“We are the forgotten,” said Mario Perez, a chauffeur-guide for tourists. “We had problems before with falling tourism, but this is likely to finish us off.”

Perez’ post is at the Alameda Hotel, which will be closed for at least several weeks undergoing repairs. Perez’ drivers union has given him permission to go to other stands to catch business, but he says that would be more trouble than it is worth.

“Even at the hotels that are open, tourist business is slow. If newcomers barge in, then fights break out. It’s resented,” he said.

For the moment, donations of food from relatives are helping Perez get through the slowdown.

‘It’s No One’s Fault’

Nearby, at the Casart curio shop, Maria Elena Lopez estimated that about 100 tourists entered her store each day before the earthquake. “Now, maybe five,” she lamented. “It’s no one’s fault. You can’t expect tourists to come and enjoy themselves when there’s so much destruction.”

Out at the Teotihuacan pyramids, which were built nearly 2,000 years ago, souvenir salesmen avidly converged this week on anyone who gave the appearance of sightseeing. On weekdays before the earthquake, they estimated, seven or eight tourist buses arrived at Teotihuacan. Now, there are perhaps two a day.

“Really, people should not be afraid,” said Alberto Hernandez, who was selling figurines made of black obsidian. “Earthquakes do not happen every day.”

Hernandez said that most visitors to the pyramids these days seem to come from Europe or Japan, with few coming from North America. Before the earthquake, he said, North Americans predominated.

Dry Day for Donkey

Just down the four-lane road, Lucio Oliva had already put Francis and a drinking buddy, a donkey named Vicenta, in their stalls after a particularly dry day. At the request of a reporter, Francis demonstrated how he chugs a bottle of beer by holding it in his mouth and tilting his head up.

“These two will have to get used to drinking water,” Oliva sighed. “Maybe we all will.”

Although most hotels in Mexico City escaped major damage, some prominently affected ones are located along principal boulevards or in tourist areas where they can be easily seen by visitors.

The Tourism Ministry published a list of hotels, showing them as “totally destroyed,” “semi-destroyed,” as having suffered major or minor damage, or having emerged unscathed.

No figures are available for the number of tourists who died in the earthquake.

5 ‘Totally Destroyed’

Five hotels collapsed and are “totally destroyed”: the Regis, the Versalles, the Romano, the Principado and the Finisterre, all with a number of dead and injured.

Eight others were described by the Tourism Ministry as “semi-destroyed” and include such buildings as the De Carlo Hotel, which is leaning at a sharp angle, and the Continental, where the top floors of two wings collapsed.

A total of 22 were reported to have suffered “major damage.” According to the ministry, these can be repaired, although it would appear that surgery on some may be difficult.

For example, the Emporio Hotel on Reforma Boulevard is leaning against a neighboring building and the Presidente, in the Zona Rosa restaurant and shopping district, is showing several ominous cracks.

Some of the 25 hotels listed as having minor damage are closed for repairs. Fifty-one hotels were described as having suffered only cosmetic damage and 42 are reported to be in a “perfect state.” Some of the hotels that escaped with little or no damage report brisk business, although slightly reduced from what they enjoyed at the same time last year.

Most of the customers are said to be businessmen. “They have to come, no matter what,” said concierge Tom Broughton of the luxury Galeria Plaza, which is open for business.

Of the 10 American citizens who are known to have died in the quake, six were in hotels. Fourteen Americans are still missing, according to the U.S. Embassy and are thought to have been staying in hotels.