Canc?n ravaged; storm of weddings hits Cabo (through winter)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=1342012
Hurricane Wilma upended Canc?n wedding plans, leading many couples to relocate ceremonies to Cabo San Lucas.
By Danna Harman
CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO Ever since hurricane Wilma thrashed Canc?n three weeks ago, the most frazzled, flustered, frantic people in tranquil Cabo San
Lucas have surely been the wedding planners.
With Mexico's premier resort still recuperating from the Category 4 storm, tens of thousands of winter sun- seekers are being forced to change their
plans. Among those are the many brides and grooms who are now flocking to sunny Cabo to say "I do."
"People spend a year planning - and then have to redo everything in a week or two, so the pressure is on," explains Veronica Miranda, a wedding
planner for Cabo's largest resort, the Riu hotel.
"I always start by saying, 'Take a deep breath. It's going to be OK?. I have a great florist,' " says Ms. Miranda who, after two weddings on Monday,
one Tuesday, and three Wednesday, by Thursday didn't know if she was headed to a gazebo ceremony or an English garden reception.
Cabo's wedding planners, like the city's travel agents, airlines, hotels, time shares, restaurants, and taxis are rallying to absorb the demand
created by the cancellations and closures on the other side of the country. "Canc?n's misfortune," says Ruben Cota, promotions coordinator at Cabo's
municipal tourism office, "?is an opportunity here."
"It's been a crazy few months," admits Vari Avila, of Baja Weddings. "First we were working with couples whose weddings in New Orleans were canceled,
and now we are being bombarded with inquiries from Canc?n and Cozumel." Two weeks ago, she says, they put together a wedding for 138 guests with a
week's notice. "The hardest part," she says, "is getting the hotel rooms."
Canc?n's Hotel Association says it expects 50 percent of its 27,000 hotel rooms to be open by Christmas and 90 percent by next summer. As of today,
only about 12 percent are inhabitable.
The Canc?n beaches, largely stripped of their white sand, are being recreated with sand dredged from the ocean floor, but they too, are not expected
to be fully restored for months. Many tour operators have postponed or moved to change their clients' schedules.
Cabo and other Mexican alternative beach destinations, meanwhile, are overflowing. The Cabo Presidente InterContinental was 45 percent booked before
Wilma hit, says Ana Ramirez, the hotel's sales manager. Today, it is 85 to 100 percent booked through January. Their Canc?n properties aren't expected
to open till March.
And the Riu, with 642 rooms, is filled to capacity with nearly 1,300 guests, says sales director Domingo Aznar. Two of Riu's three Canc?n hotels
reopened this month, but still, many tourists, hearing of the miles of fallen palm trees, the closed discos, the paucity of public transport, and low
mood there, don't want to go.
Before hurricane Wilma, Canc?n was Mexico's most-visited tourist destination, with 3 million visitors a year, compared to Cabo's 1.5 million. Indeed,
nearly 40 percent of the $11 billion spent by visitors to Mexico last year came from Canc?n and the surrounding area.
Cabo and Canc?n have always boasted different characters - Cabo, an hour-and-a-half flight from Los Angeles, is more a West Coast destination; Canc?n,
with its easy charters to New York, is an East Coast affair.
Canc?n is a place to dance disco all night, go wild over spring break, or set off to see the Mayan pyramids; Cabo is a place to go fishing, explore
the desert, and play a round of golf. Cabo is smaller and more expensive - the average room rate here is $160 compared to $110 in Canc?n and $90 in
Puerto Vallarta. And while the Cabo area is growing at a rate of more than 20 percent a year, it still has only approximately 10,000 hotel and
time-share rooms, says Mr. Cota, as opposed to Canc?n's 27,000.
But hurricane Wilma, believes Cota, might have a longer-term impact here. "People who could not change their trips this year - maybe could not find a
room, or change their weddings - suddenly started thinking about us as an alternative," he says. "I believe this will have a very positive effect on
2006."
Jennifer Lee, manager of weddings in Paradise, echoes this idea, saying many couples who had planned Canc?n weddings postponed their dates. But many
now have Cabo on their minds, says Ms. Lee. She has half a dozen November and December Canc?n weddings rescheduled here for the New Year.
Laura McCoy, a young accountant, and her bricklayer fianc? Rob Morrow, both from Omaha, Neb., had planned to wed this week at Canc?n's Casa Magna
Marriott. But the hotel is still closed, with workers moving debris out of the lobby and rebuilding the pool area.
"I had a nervous breakdown," admits Laura's mother Mary McCoy. Their main objective, she says, was to keep the date and find a place that could
accommodate them and their 40 guests, only 25 of whom managed to show up.
"I couldn't be too upset because it was a natural disaster - who are you going to be upset with?" asks Mr. Morrow, sitting down to an all-you-can-eat
buffet lunch at the Riu Cabo with his twin brothers and best men, Scott and Andy. "But as it turns out, I think it worked out for the better. This
place is gorgeous."
The ceremony will take place, as planned, at 10 a.m. A Cabo gazebo has been substituted for the Canc?n beachfront; the reception moved from a Canc?n
restaurant to a Cabo patio. Planner Miranda coos as she clicks through a photography Web page with the nervous- looking McCoys.
"It's going to be very special," she promises. "It's the Mexico beach wedding you dreamed of - it's just on a different coast."
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