News, Tips and Bargains : New Hotel in Huatulco

Omni Hotels has opened a 27-acre resort in Huatulco, Mexico, bringing to nine the number of four- and five-star accommodations in the resort area on Mexico’s southern Pacific coastline.

The Omni Zaashila Resort is on Tangolunda Bay, center of development in Huatulco and already home to Club Med, Sheraton, Royal Maeva, Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza and Casa del Mar hotels.

Huatulco, with its 22 miles of coastline and nine pristine bays, sits about 300 miles south of Acapulco and is the last of the Mexican government’s planned tourist destinations (the others are Cancun, Ixtapa, Los Cabos and Loreto). New development there is meant to reflect lessons that Mexico has learned at its other tourist resorts. About 80% of the land has been set aside for ecological purposes and building height limits have been imposed.

And, says Wenceslao Salas, Fonatur’s U.S. representative in the United States, “we are looking to give Huatulco a more Mexican profile. In Cancun, there has been criticism that it could be in any part of Caribbean.”

Quiet and secluded, Huatulco is short on nightclubs but long on natural beauty. “Huatulco is a great escape,” says Skip Stearns, a vice president for Omni Hotels. “The lack of night life is limiting for a certain audience, but it’s great for honey-mooners and small groups.”

“The bays,” Stearns says, “make for natural environment for snorkeling, diving, game fishing and all the water sports. The colonial city of Oaxaca is close by, as are some charming small villages. The challenge in front of all of us and even the Mexican government is to create greater awareness of Huatulco.”

In 1993, the resort expected to receive 250,000 visitors, up from 165,000 in 1992.

Footloose With the Fab Four

Attention Beatle-maniacs: You can go where the Beatles went before you, thanks to two new walking tours of London sites associated with the rock group. Richard Porter, who has been called the “Beatle Brain of Britain,” and who is president of the group’s London fan club, sets off on a “Fab Four” trail twice a week.

On Sundays, the tour takes in Abbey Road studios, the Apple recording company offices and the site of the art gallery where John Lennon met his wife Yoko Ono. On Wednesday, the walk includes the registry office where Paul and Linda McCartney were married; Ringo Starr’s flat in Montague Square, and Marylebone Station, where the opening scenes of the group’s movie, “A Hard Day’s Night” were filmed.

Walks are about $6. For information and reservations, call London Walks in London, local tel. 624-3978.

Customs Fees Going Up

Air and sea passengers returning to the U.S. will now have to add $6.50 to their travel budgets if their trips take them to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.

That’s the fee the Customs Service is charging travelers re-entering the U.S. from those destinations. Congress authorized a $5 customs inspection fee in 1985 for all travelers entering the U.S., but exempted those coming from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. That exemption was dropped on Jan. 1, and the fee was increased from $5 to $6.50.

One important exemption remains: Passengers arriving on one of the frequent ferry boats from Canada don’t have to ante up.

Banning Smoking on International Flights

United Airlines will begin trial smoking bans on two international routes on March 1. Through September, the airline will test consumer response to a ban on one of its two daily nonstops between New York’s JFK Airport and London’s Heathrow, and on daily service from Los Angeles to Auckland/Melbourne.

In addition, from early June through September, designated flights to London from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington Dulles also will be smoke-free. The change could become permanent or be extended to other flights.