Mexico ready to cash in on apocalyptic levels of tourism

SEIZE the day.

Only a year is left before December 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world.

While some doomsday theorists may suggest putting together survival kits, people in southeastern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, will throw a year-long celebration and make a profit while they party.

Mexico’s tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors over the coming year to the five states richest in Mayan heritage. Mexico as a whole is expected to lure just 22m foreigners this year.

It is selling the date, the winter solstice, as a time of renewal. Most Mexican archaeological authorities say that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar, not an apocalypse.

“The world will not end. It is an era,” said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun.

“For us, it is a message of hope.”

Cities and towns in the Mayan region are starting the year-long countdown today. The city of Tapachula will start a 2.5-metre digital clock in its main park, to begin the countdown exactly a year before the date.

On Mexico’s Caribbean coast, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a time capsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers will perform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.

“People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom,” said Zaldo said.

President Felipe Calderon announced there would be about 500 Maya-themed events throughout the year in southern Mexico.

Some theorists claim to have found evidence of a 2012 apocalypse in the Bible, the prophesies of Nostradamus or in the alignment of celestial bodies, and official assurances that the world is likely to continue have not convinced everyone.

An article on the website “survivalguide2012” advises readers to consider heading to mountains on December 21, perhaps those in Alaska or Bolivia. “Regardless whether the threat of December 21, 2012, is real or not, there is no harm in being prepared,” said the author, writing under the name Yang Muffins.