2012 End of the World Results to Tourism Boom at Mayan States

2012 End of the World Results to Tourism Boom at Mayan States

Mexican government officials are predicting a surge of visitors to the five southern states that comprise the country's Maya region. The end of the world, it turns out, is marked by an economic boom.

“Given the amount of interest we're seeing from around the world, it's generating global excitement as well," said Yanick Dalhouse, the Belize Tourism Board's Director of Marketing.

Dalhouse is referring to the year 2012's implication as the end of the Maya Long Count calendar, five-125-year period of time which ends exactly on Gregorian calendar date December 21, 2012. President Felipe Calderon announced this at a special summer press conference in 2011 to launch Mexico's Maya 2012 tourism efforts.

In 2012, Gaspar Pedro González, a Guatemalan novelist and professor at University Mariano Gálvez says, visitors should seek out the opportunity "to meet actual Maya, see their customs, their traditions, their form of life, and learn about their mysticism and philosophy." Even though, he says, in rural Guatemala, "There aren't as many comforts, only simple pensions. But that is where you'll find the essence of life and the essence of the culture."

Whether or not the Maya benefit from the interest in their culture generated by a foretold (or not) apocalypse will depend largely on the priorities of travelers. The year will prove a success for native communities only if foreigners desire more than to focus at the end of the world.

Posted by James Fried on Thursday January 05 2012, 5:48 AM EST. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0