Friday, September 30, 2011

Peñasco or Bust!


-by El Gitano Peñasco, "The Peñasco Gypsy"

And so between that ‘east’ bound highway coming from the ‘west’ and those flights that were going to come in from LAX (Los Angles airport) to our seaside community, ‘hawkers’ here were certain that a zillion tourists from California would make the journey and our city would overflow with those happy-go-lucky vacationers.

Sadly, as we all know, neither happened. In the case of those flights, according to Fernando Antillon, Director General, Aéropuerto Internacional Mar de Cortés, there was basically no demand. I would add the same can be said of the highway, too!


With both avenues leading to Puerto Peñasco I would also suggest there likely wasn’t a sufficient marketing budget available to promote coming here and quite frankly I’m not sure S. California is a market worthy of pursuit and spending those precious funds on anyway.

First of all, at their very doorstep they have a lot of beach front options including the west coast of the USA, the island of Catalina plus the beach areas of Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada and they can get to all of ‘em within an hour or two and w/o the hassle of flying.

As for those Gringos who do not fear driving in Mexico (at all), they also have other options such as our neighbor across the Sea of Cortez in the charming little seaside community of San Felipe; and S. Californians can drive to SF a heck of a lot quicker than they can get here (and back home) and still enjoy Mexico, the beaches, the people, the foods and so forth.

In fact, some SoCal travelers in that region of the Baja on a two-week vacation are now spending a week in Ensenada and then they drive over the ‘hills’ and spend a week in San Felipe before they shoot up through Mexicali and across the border to jump on Interstate 8 and back in SoCal they are.

So with those marketing challenges (and more) in mind I’d bet the ‘Campos’ and/or ‘Ejidos’ that it would be much wiser and more profitable for PP to promote our destination in communities up in the USA where residents don’t have the same options as do the folks in SoCal and starting with just one targeted city launch a marketing blitz (and ‘theme’) that we can consider dubbing, as this week’s title suggests, ‘Peñasco or Bust!’

A Gypsy can always dream!

¡Viva Puerto Peñasco y México!

Gypsy

elgitanopenasco@gmail.com
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain