Cancun City is located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, according to the NLG Solutions website. The City of Cancun is divided into two main areas: Cancun Island and Cancun City. The Cancun area is around 764,000 square miles in size with two bridges linking the City and Island of Cancun.
Before the Mexican government’s investment in the Cancun region in the 1970s, the area was a small group of sand dunes rarely visited by people, according to the Cancun website. In 1969, the Cancun area was one of five regions chosen for development as purpose built tourist cities along with Ixtapa, Los Cabos, Loreto and Bahias de Huatulio. The Cancun area was chosen as a tourist site because of the beauty of the area and its close proximity to ancient Mayan ruins. According to the Cancun website, the first hotels opened in 1974 with development continuing until Cancun became Mexico’s most important tourism center by 1989. The name Cancun is a translation of the Mayan word Kankun meaning nest of snakes.
The area called Cancun City is known to its 450,000 residents as Centro, according to the All About Cancun website. The tourist area of Cancun is known as Zona Hotelera and is a 14-mile long island surrounded by lagoons, the Caribbean Sea and the Bay of Women. The main source of income in Cancun is the tourism industry. When the area was developed, Virginia Tech reports, some farmers were brought into the area to stimulate agriculture. However, the water and soil found in the Cancun area is unsuitable for farming, meaning the majority of the food used in Cancun is brought in from other areas.
NLG Solutions reports the climate of Cancun City is tropical with an average temperature around 80 degrees F. The area receives only seasonal rainfall and around 240 days of sunshine per year. Cancun City’s beaches are almost completely limestone meaning they do not heat up under the hot sunshine.
Cancun City is Mexico’s largest tourist center in 2010, according to the Cancun website. Despite the boost to the Mexican economy provided by the tourist industry, Virginia Tech reports the majority of skilled workers in the city are foreign workers. The majority of positions filled by Mexican workers are for unskilled workers and poor housing and hygiene facilities are provided for local workers.
