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MEXICO

Reality Tourism in Oaxaca 2007
by Ron Mader

MEXICO WIKI

Publication date: December 2007

FLICKR ALBUM: Oaxaca 2007
SLIDESHOW

Outside Mexico for much of 2007 tourism professionals and journalists asked whether it's time to promote travel to Oaxaca after the social protests of 2006 transformed the city landscape.

In Oaxaca locals have said 'yes' it's time to promote travel and the sooner the better. That said, the return of travelers to Oaxaca has been slow in coming in 2007. Reality tourism is on the upswing and is meeting responsible travel head on.

POSTCARD FROM DECEMBER 2007

Reservations will be needed for most hotels during the Christmas holiday.

Oaxaca is buzzing with visitors and tour buses.

POSTCARD FROM NOVEMBER 2007

Day of the Dead has filled hotel rooms. Locals and visitors believe that an economic turn-around is in play.

Someone turned the light on. There are buses the last week of November than we have seen since May 2006.

POSTCARD FROM OCTOBER 2007

Want to be inspired? Check out these updated Flickr galleries: Bicicletas Pedro Martinez, Arbol de la Vida, Mundo Ceiba and Gerhard Buttner

Amigos del Sol has a new location: Pino Suárez #802

There are a number of new financial lending institutions.

The beggars have come back to work.

Baruch Nestor Garcia published the Oaxaca tourism map and is preparing another run for Day of the Dead.

The number of street musicans is on the rise. Alcala and Garcia Vigil are alive with the sound of acordians.

Local artists are now including depictions of the protests in their work.

STATUS REPORT

Oaxaca is a safe place to visit for national and international visitors. The barricades of August-October 2006 are long gone.

Numerous businesses have closed. Others have taken out loans that they need to repay in the near future.

Tourism newspapers such as Go Oaxaca have not had new editions for more than six months and the publishers report that there is not enough local advertising to resume publication.

"We stopped losing money in March, but we're not making anything," said one business man.

OUR WORK

Since 2001 Planeta.com has highlighted conscientious travel and ecotourism in Oaxaca by co-sponsoring an annual tourism fair and providing free web workshops to locals. We also conduct the Best of Oaxaca Survey.

OAXACA MARKET PROJECT

The the newly developing Oaxaca Market Project, an initiative of Planeta.com and friends in Oaxaca. We ask visitors to print photos (seen here archived on Flickr) and give them to the venders. This puts a new spin on the traditional 'take only photographs' mantra by giving the photos back and raising awareness and increasing purchases of traditional crafts and local food.

WEAVING THE WEB

For the past year as travelers were not arriving in Oaxaca, Planeta.com offered free web workshops showing artisans and market venders how to publish photos online and answer email. Most artisans prefer to sell direct to visitors so this work has been instrumental in providing some 'clues' so that travelers can visit the workshops in person.

Several of the families now have galleries on Flickr to show off their work. One example: the Lazo Mendoza family. More artisan families are featured in the directory of weavers in Teotitlán del Valle.

TOURISM AND CULTURE

During the 2006-2007 crisis the loss of tourism severely impacted the cultural life in Oaxaca, starting with diminished sales for artisans who produce some of Mexico's best-loved crafts.

Luis Lazo Mendoza (photo) was quoted in a November Associated Press article on how artisans have been hit hard by the conflict. Luis and other weavers from Teotitlán want to use the Web to sell their work, but they have been stymied about email and ecommerce.

Rosa Blum, owner of Corazon del Pueblo, suggests that improvements can be undertaken in two ways -- encouraging travelers to visit and buy directly from the workshops and second, asking craft aficionados to invite one or two crafts people from each village to craft shows abroad. Her husband, Henry Wangemann, says it's even simpler. "Buy something from Oaxaca, whether it's coffee or craft. Anything helps.

ADVANCES

"In a crisis, you might find some positive things in the middle of a disaster," said Lucero Topete director of Instituto Cultural Oaxaca, the city's oldest Spanish language school. Lucero and other directors of language schools banded to gether to create a new local association, ASESEO.

Said one hotel owner, "After all that's happened, we cannot remain the same. It's time to find who we are as Oaxacans and what we wish to show the world." Like the association of Spanish language schools, the small hotel owners also created an association of bed and breakfast hotels.

Outside Oaxaca many have used the Web as a way to promote their friends. One example - Beth Murphy, a photographer and fan of Luis Lazo Mendoza created a website - www.luislazomendoza.com - to show off his work.

REALITIES TOURISM

There is no single face to Oaxaca tourism given that there is no single face to Oaxaca. The state boasts 17 indigenous languages and the greatest degree of biodiversity in the country. In terms of cultural and environmental diversity, the states shines.

AUTHOR

Ron Mader is the ecotourism and responsible travel correspondent for Transitions Abroad and host of the award-winning Planeta.com website.

FEATURES

Oaxaca Tips
Oaxaca Newsgoogled: Media Coverage of the 2006 Conflict
Artesania, Tourism and the Web
Tourism and Indigenous People
Tourism and Migration
Tourism, Crisis and Improving the Conversation

TRAVEL ADVISORY

For much of 2007 the U.S. government had posted a travel warning for its citizens traveling to the city and state of Oaxaca, saying visitors should "use caution" in the region.