Cancún, Austin: Cities in the World of Gentrification
The first time I heard of an all-inclusive resort was when my sister mentioned she wanted to celebrate her birthday out of the country in style. As a broke college student, I was amazed by what looked like a cheap price tag for hotel rooms in Cancún, Mexico. For only $300 a night, I could stay at a resort with all-inclusive drinks and food whenever I ordered. The luxury felt incredibly indulgent compared to the United States, where a month prior, I spent a similar amount for a greasy hotel room near Orlando to attend a conference. The deal for the resort was plentiful, but I would later understand why it was ample for me and not others.
The hotel staff offered us continuous food and beverage options throughout our stay. Tourists sunbathing in sparkly swimsuits filled the beaches, bringing sand on their sandals as they walked back into the hotel. I noticed the staff were constantly cleaning glasses, sweeping or fixing things everywhere I looked. Because of this, the hotel was pristine, regardless of the bombardment of sandy bodies mulling throughout.
The next day, my sister and I took a day trip to Chichén Itzá to see the Maya ruins.
Upon arriving, I saw iguanas being used as expensive photo opportunities for tourists.
At gift shops scattered near the ruins, magnets were selling for $10 and bottles of tequila and mezcal were shelved neatly, selling anywhere from $30-60.
Tourists crowded the site. On almost every corner, people walked through white roads all along the ancient buildings, blocking passageways if they happened to stop for photos.
My lack of awareness when it came to the social and economic background of all-inclusive hotels wildly contributed to my stay in Cancún. Notably, having a slight conception of the U.S. labor laws made me uncomfortable throughout my visit.
The truth is, cities in Mexico are hot spots for one of the most prominent systemic issues for those who have a lower socioeconomic status: gentrification. As people begin to populate the country for their remote work trips and vacations, the cities face an ever-increasing battle with rising prices. Other cities in Mexico face “Cancún-ification” as tourists and “digital nomads” take up a majority of rentable housing.
Mexico saw a gradual increase of prices in the early 2000s, which drastically increased after COVID-19. People in urban areas like Mexico City and Cancún often feel a sense of unrest at the influx of digital nomads. The usually cost-effective spaces have suddenly increased in price for locals, but are still relatively cheap for influencers.
For Cancún, gentrification issues come from inescapable tourism, which infects most of the city. “All-inclusive tourism” represents an inherent wealth gap between those who work at these oversaturated, European-based hotels and the nomads who can take advantage of these resources. Some argue people working at these all-inclusive resorts, destination services and entertainment hotspots will make more money than in a rural part of Mexico. However, work days often last 15 hours for those who need the money, and the labor is exploitative at best.
The U.S. and Mexico are incredibly different in terms of their social and cultural backgrounds and economies. Still, both countries face widespread wealth gaps due to capitalism.
Austin has severe issues with gentrification, systemically kicking out residents with a lower socioeconomic status at the behest of increasing technology sectors and a slew of new businesses. I’ve heard Austinities refer to the city as the “next California” regarding livability. This comparison draws from Los Angeles’s notorious homelessness crisis as a direct result of gentrification.
The cost of living in Texas is the 15th lowest in the country as of 2022, but that includes the whole state, not just Austin. As one of the most significant urban developments in the country, Austin is quickly becoming uninhabitable for residents who have lived there for years. With these rising costs, local businesses have also closed. Opportunistic developers have snatched prime real estate and built luxury apartments across the city's metropolis.
According to Eater Austin, 59 restaurants have closed this year. Other beloved closures include Native Hostel, which will become a putt-putt golf course, and the original Cain and Abel’s, a bar near the University of Texas campus that opened in 1991. This plot of land will be turned into student housing.
One thing that stuck out to me during my visit to Cancún, a city scattered with arts, entertainment and music, similarly faced systemic problems leading to unaffordability and homelessness. Improvements have been made to decrease the population of people who experience homelessness in Austin, but the difficulty lies in continued cost-of-living increases across the United States.
Finding answers regarding the sprawling consumerism impacting almost every sector of Austin is difficult. Is it wrong to take a vacation in Mexico? Not necessarily. Is it wrong to live in Austin, go to the occasional chain restaurant, and keep to yourself? No, that isn’t wrong either. What defines or isn’t bad for the individual is often conflated with what is systematically wrong — The issue is that too many people do it.
After my trip, I firmly believed attending all-inclusive resorts was unethical, but I was not equal to those who created these hotspots. Still, I participated in a more significant foundation, allowing hotels to make profits. There are less exploitative options for your next trip, just as there are plenty of ways to contribute to small businesses in Austin. It is challenging to find better options, considering the large number of monopolized companies dominating the hospitality industry, but it is possible. The question I ultimately had after coming back home was: Where would I draw the line on the ethics of my vacations compared to the city I call home? I answered that by swearing off cheap all-inclusive resorts and have looked for local businesses and volunteer groups to support. It’s easy to ignore and co-opt issues facing cities, but we can still be proactive.
Photos by Rachel Joy Thomas