Bus travels to areas beyond surface of city hit hard by flagging tourism
By Sandra Dibble
July 21, 2008
TIJUANA – The sight of bright-red roofless buses crossing Tijuana this past week has been drawing smiles, waves and thumbs-up signs – and more than a
few surprised expressions. Amid plummeting tourism revenues, Tijuana has found cause for celebration with the launching of a new bus tour aimed at
showing visitors different aspects of the city.
Downtown's Teniente Guerrero Park, the Agua Caliente Tower, a winery, a brewery and the Rio Zone's restaurant row are among the stops on the Tijuana
City Tour route inaugurated Tuesday.
“A lot of people don't know the city, think that Tijuana is just Avenida Revolucion, but the truth is that there are historic buildings everywhere and
lots of stories to tell,” said Jorge Luis Sánchez, tourism director for Grupo Empresarial Mar de Cortez.
The Tijuana-based transportation consortium converted three buses and launched Tijuana City Tour through its subsidiary Mexicoach, which has provided
cross-border bus service for years. The 15-mile city tour starts and ends in the Rio Zone at the Tijuana Cultural Center, or Cecut, but riders can hop
on and off at any of the 13 stops, riding all day after paying the $10 adult fare.
As the bus rumbled through downtown Tijuana one morning last week, the busy urban landscape seemed to rush by. Smells of taco stands and tortillerías,
sounds of barking dogs and roaring buses, the sights of pastry shops, flower stalls, shoeshine booths and clamato juice stands came and went.
A woman on a balcony watered her geraniums. Outside a secondhand store in Colonia Independencia, four identical swivel chairs were lined up on a
street as though waiting for company. A brightly colored mural outside a union hall on Ninth Street denounced U.S. imperialism and celebrated Mexico's
relations with Cuba.
To explain the passing scenery, bilingual guides usually accompany the tour, their narration researched through the Tijuana Historical Society. They
point out such nuggets as the spot where Nat King Cole once sang and the house where guitarist Javier Batiz grew up.
Mexicoach hopes to encourage cultural awareness through the tours, director José Medina said, and to increase business in Tijuana, including its own,
which has dropped 40 percent this year.
“The fact that there is a business that is willing to invest is for us a great stimulus,” said Andrés Méndez, owner of a curio shop and coordinator of
an Avenida Revolucion merchants association, Ceturmex. Sales on the traditional tourist strip have fallen 80 percent since 2001, Méndez said, and
numerous businesses have closed. “We're running out of options.”
Tijuana's Convention and Visitors Committee reports that overall tourism in Tijuana has dropped dramatically since 2005 – from about 25 million
visitors annually to nearly 15 million.
Together with the visitors committee, local businesses have been searching for ways to win back customers from both sides of the border. Events such
as a recent sushi festival, organized by the restaurant association known as Canirac, have drawn crowds to the Pueblo Amigo shopping center. This past
weekend, Playas de Tijuana was the setting for a seafood festival.
The city also has been attracting growing numbers of visitors from other parts of Mexico, through conventions, conferences and special events, said
visitors committee President Ana Alicia Meneses. But businesses reliant on tourism from the United States have been badly hit.
The bus tours “can be an attraction both for people from the city and from outside,” Meneses said.
She and other tourism promoters attribute the sharp decline in visitors from California to the combined effects of slow border crossings, reports of
violence, confusion about next year's U.S. passport requirement and the U.S. economic downturn.
Reports of police extortion in tourist areas have fallen dramatically in recent months, Méndez and other business owners said, but this has not
brought back their customers.
Next door to Méndez's shop, visitors waited in Mexicoach's Avenida Revolucion terminal to board buses back to the United States last week.
Visitors such as Denise Jefferson of Stockton said they would welcome a guided tour. Jefferson, a city planner, came with her family “for a day of
adventure” and traveled by taxi.
“I usually get lost because I am not that fluent in Spanish,” she said. “It would have been really nice to do an open-air tour and get familiar with
the city.”
--
DETAILS
Tijuana City Tour
When: Every hour. The first trip starts at 10 a.m. from the Tijuana Cultural Center and the last one ends at 8 p.m.
Where: Trip starts at the cultural center, but riders can board at any of 13 stops on the route, such as along Avenida Revolucion and near the border
at the Viva Tijuana shopping center.
Fare: Adults pay $10; seniors older than 60 and children younger than 12 pay $5. One child accompanied by an adult may ride free.BajaNews - 1-10-2009 at 02:46 PM
Photo by PEGGY PEATTIE
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos and Ann Alicia Meneses, president of the visitors committee, waved to shopkeepers from a Tijuana City Tour bus. The tour has
been launched to try to boost the city's flagging tourism industry.
Tijuana isn’t the easiest city to figure out. Most traditional Mexican cities are squarely built around a plaza that serves as the community’s
religious and governmental meeting point, but in Tijuana there is no real center. So it’s no surprise that tourists typically stick to the tried-and
-true strip of Avenida Revolucion. I didn’t get much beyond that part of the city myself until I worked here from 2000-2007.
Tijuana is trying to help visitors get to know the city better with a tour bus service that started this summer. The idea is a great one: Take
tourists to parts of the city they would not normally visit and make it easy for them to hop on and off the bus. I did this recently, and got to see
the city in a whole new way from my usual vantage point behind the steering wheel of a car.
You can make a day out of the $10 trip by getting off the bus at the Tijuana brewery or L.A. Cetto wine cellar for some homegrown drinks (unless it’s
Sunday). You can also throw some pesos into slot machines at a new betting anex at the Hipodromo and grab some food in the city’s upscale Zona Rio
business district to name a few possiblities.
When I took the bus one Sunday, though, there was only me and my party of four. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s not being advertised enough or
because people are staying away due to recent drug-related violence. That’s a shame because the view from the bus is an inspiring one and as we passed
by tourists walking down Avenida Revolucion, I couldn’t help think what they were missing.
Tijuana city tour partners up with Baja Nomads
fdt - 1-10-2009 at 03:00 PM
Providing transportation for the toy drive .
Woooosh - 1-10-2009 at 03:24 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
Photo by PEGGY PEATTIE
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos and Ann Alicia Meneses, president of the visitors committee, waved to shopkeepers from a Tijuana City Tour bus. The tour has
been launched to try to boost the city's flagging tourism industry.
Not so good for the Mercedes SUV tour...
"The violence has continued into the new year, as 27 people were killed over the past week. The deaths, two of which occurred in Rosarito Beach, were
reported between midnight Jan. 2 and yesterday afternoon. Seven people had been decapitated, including four 17-year-olds.
Another victim was a woman shot to death as gunmen kidnapped her male companion from a Mercedes SUV during the day on a busy street."
-----------
Come on- let's just acccept TJ for the rank armpit it is right now. Sure it has vibrant culture and rich history but so does Isreal-and I'm not
booking a sghtseeing tour there anytime soon either.
It is wonderful and heart warming that Nomads are out and about helping the children though- for they are suffering the most. But honestly- let's
just put TJ on the back burner as a promotable toursit destination for now.
[Edited on 1-10-2009 by Woooosh]
Duck and cover
Dave - 1-10-2009 at 04:46 PM
Roofless buses??
Does a flack jacket and bullet proof helmet come with every seat? Ken Cooke - 1-10-2009 at 10:26 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Roofless buses??
Does a flack jacket and bullet proof helmet come with every seat?
I didn't need one, and I'll be returning there soon without a police escort. barneyb - 1-10-2009 at 10:54 PM
I've seen this bus 3 times in the last month, each time without a single passenger. FYI tourists are not going to go to TJ just to ride on a bus
around the city. There need to be enough tourists visiting the city for this to work. I'm surprised with all the violence in the recent months that
the bus continues to operate. Even before the violence drastically escalated in September there was hardly any tourism.
I know it will never happen but somehow the city has to stop the government and police corruption that aids the cartels in the area or the violence
will never stop and the tourists will never return.2-tie-dye-4 - 1-10-2009 at 11:02 PM
well said, BarneyCaboRon - 1-11-2009 at 05:56 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by barneyb
I've seen this bus 3 times in the last month, each time without a single passenger. FYI tourists are not going to go to TJ just to ride on a bus
around the city. There need to be enough tourists visiting the city for this to work. I'm surprised with all the violence in the recent months that
the bus continues to operate. Even before the violence drastically escalated in September there was hardly any tourism.
I know it will never happen but somehow the city has to stop the government and police corruption that aids the cartels in the area or the violence
will never stop and the tourists will never return.
And that is the bottom line !!
CaboRobsd - 1-11-2009 at 07:13 AM
During last weeks toy drive I was very pleased with the service provided by Mexicoach.
I parked in the lot on US side ($8.00 for the day), and boarded the Mexicoach bus that transported me to the main bus terminal ($4.00). Nice way to go
as we zipped through the border with no delay. Bus was very clean, in perfect condition.
Arriving at the terminal early, I was treated well and introduced to our driver for the day. These open buses are new, polished and great as we could
choose open air or sit in the covered area.
We were fortunate to have several residents of Tijuana as our guides for the city tour. All are very proud of their city. The city is interesting with
many things to see. We had a police escort as some people who had planned on joining us were concerned about safety. They were not able to make it,
and those of us who attended did not feel the escort was necessary.
The issues that Tijuana is experiencing are unfortunate. However, many good people there are still trying to make a living. I enjoyed my day there and
met many local people who all were kind to me. I will do the tour again soon. I had no fear at any time. It was a very enjoyable inexpensive day trip.
If you hesitate to visit as a safety concern, you have made your decision and that is fine. I just want everyone to know it is a very well run tour
and everyone was great!
ScotWoooosh - 1-11-2009 at 01:12 PM
A police escort is actually avaialble? That's like painting a target on you- they'll figure there is someone worth kidnapping or killing on board. I
won't even pull up alongside an armored car down there- I move three lanes away.
Like I said before- TJ has vibrant culture and history, but so does Israel and there are no sightseers going there right now either.
Only difference I guess is the holy lands are being blown to bits and there isn't much left to study from an archaeological perspective. The violence
in TJ washes clean after a rain.Bajahowodd - 1-11-2009 at 01:45 PM
Maybe soon, they'll run out of bodies to decapitate.Woooosh - 1-11-2009 at 02:07 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Maybe soon, they'll run out of bodies to decapitate.
The last batch of the headless were 17. They are recruiting younger men who can't be charged by adults under Mexican law. Of course the narcos have
capital punishment. Go figure.
There is no end to the number of poor young men who will sign up out of greed- even if the risk is death. Same as in the middle east- without the
greed (just that 70 virgin thing...).
[Edited on 1-11-2009 by Woooosh]DENNIS - 1-11-2009 at 04:08 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Maybe soon, they'll run out of bodies to decapitate.
Not till they take a "head count."fdt - 1-11-2009 at 04:11 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Be the man your dog thinks you are.
Are you there yet?Bajahowodd - 1-11-2009 at 04:34 PM
Very funny, Dennis. Hey Wooosh- I really don't see the comparison to the Middle East. The common thread is poverty. They can thank the PRI for that.
However, IMHO, religious zeal is a far more dangerous motivator than money. History is rife with holy wars. Being on a mission from God, is a little
different from wanting to be rich. At least, I hope so.
The problem right now is timing. The world economy is headed to the dumper. Mexico needs to divert more money into job creation and education, if they
ever hope to stop this mess. An irony in this whole mess is that Mexico has abundant natural resources, a very good higher educational system, and can
make their place in the world economy, should they have the resolve. Unfortunately, much as is the case of the United States, more emphasis is place
on short term profits and comfort of the elite class. Pity that folks can't see that there's more than enough to go around. Just have put the brakes
on personal greed.
