Fast recovery for Cancun

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NEW TOURISTS BEING FLOWN IN THIS WEEKEND TO RESORTS LESS DAMAGED BY HURRICANE

By Will Weissert

Associated Press


CANCÚN, Mexico -- Even as some of the last of Mexico's storm-struck tourists were emptying out of the Caribbean coast Friday, television footage showed a planeload of tourists flying back in, bound for less-damaged resorts south of Cancún.

Mexico's travel industry vowed to have several planeloads of new visitors fly in by Saturday -- what officials hope will be the last day of a massive exodus that extracted around 35,000 stranded, weary travelers -- even as bulldozers gathered up tons of storm debris in Cancún.

The company that runs Cancún's airport, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, said Friday that it had restored the airport's damaged control tower and navigation systems. It said the first regular commercial flights since Oct. 20 should resume over the weekend.

Alex Sosaya of Apple Vacations said his company had planned to bring 11 flights of tourists to Cancún on Saturday, even though the airport is not fully operational.

Miguel Fluxa, owner of the Spanish company Iberostar, said he will be flying new tourists to his hotels starting Friday.

Only about 5,000 tourists are believed to remain in Cancún -- including ``several thousand'' Americans in and around the city, according to the U.S. Embassy -- waiting at hotels or shelters for a flight out.

That was down from a peak of nearly 40,000 tourists trapped inside shelters when Wilma smashed into the resort region Friday with 145 mph winds.

Owners of hotels south of Cancún in the Mayan Riviera, which suffered less damage, said they had 10,000 hotel rooms ready for visitors.

For five days, buses and airplanes have been working to move out thousands each day.

More than two days of furious winds caused what Mexico's insurance industry said was the costliest disaster in Mexican history.

By Friday, many of the few tourists remaining in Cancún were desperate for running water.

``How many days have we been since showering? Seven? Eight?'' asked Octavio Santos, a 41-year-old electrical engineer who was trying to get a ticket home to Toluca in central Mexico. ``We don't want to wait another day.''

James Stott of Washington, D.C., said his family of six would have to pay thousands of dollars to buy new tickets out of Cancún because a charter airline company and a tour agency could not agree on which was responsible for evacuating them.