Mundo maya: From Cancun to city of culture. World heritage in post-colonial mesoamerica

Abstract

Mexico has traded on its world heritage since the first inscriptions in the late 1980s, both to widen its domestic tourism offer of the coastal resorts of Acapulco, Huatalco, Puerto Vallarta, to North American and long-haul European visitors, and to promote a version of Mexicanidad to its own peoples. Since joining the NAFTA, presaging a more 'open' global economy, heritage and tourism have become twin but unequal elements in the country's economic development strategy. The promotion of the Mundo Maya linking heritage sites of pre-Colombian civilisations with the all-inclusive Mayan Riviera resorts of Cancún and Cozumel, has extended tourism development to the south-east and bordering countries. However, residual Mayan communities still inhabit these areas and service the resorts, but less so the heritage sites. The spatial relationship between these sites, city hubs and city resorts, is therefore explored from the perspective of international, national and regional policy towards heritage and tourism, and the fourth world communities whose inheritance is 'on offer'.