Painting the town: the capital gets a makeover as big bucks are pumped into local tourism efforts. (Tourism Report).

By the end of this year, it looks as though Mexico's capital will be--if not exactly unrecognizable--visibly and breath-takingly transformed. The Angel will still be there, the cathedral, the Torre Latino, the World Trade Center towards the south and Santa Fe glinting in the sun to the west. But in many ways it will be another Mexico City, with an altered skyline and, implicitly, a new businesslike ethos of quality service and efficiency to go with it.

For years now, there has been talk of Mexico City's "tourism corridors" and revamping of its historic center, but when Andres Lopez Obrador took the reigns as mayor with Dr. Julieta Campos as his Tourism Secretary, this became a critical focus of their leadership, as the city government put tourism at the center of its economic strategy.

Last April, an inter-secretarial commission got the show on the road, coordinated by the Mexico City Tourism Secretariat and consisting of eight Secretaries, three regional government offices, four trusts, major investors and a number of business chambers and associations. The following month, a collaborative agreement for urban planning was signed with the Architecture Faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The result was a city-wide master plan that also included provisions for improved sanitation, pest control, lighting, increased tourist safety and better cared-for parks and gardens.

The project formed the main body of Campos' July 2001 Annual Report, in which she noted that tourism represents 167,000 direct jobs and 417,000 indirect.

Changes are already clearly afoot. Many city dwellers may not have noticed that the Museo Nacional de Arte (on Calle Tacuba) has reopened after extensive renovation, nor witnessed the welcomed sprucing up of the world-famous Museo Nacional de Antropologia (which receives more than 3 million visitors each year). But anyone who has passed through the center since Dec. 6 will have spotted the new street lamps, with their distinctive jutting angles, and the perky police officers (250 specially-trained, with 14 new patrol cars) dotting Paseo de Ia Reforma.

STROLLING THE CORRIDORS

Behind these changes is the billion-dollar Tourism and Cultural Corridors Program, an unprecedented joint initiative of local and national government, and the private sector. The program's main objective is to revitalize the capital's main urban axes by actively promoting economic development and job creation initiatives related to tourism promotion.

The two axes singled out are Reforma-Alameda-Historic Downtown, and the Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica de Guadalupe. They have been labeled "tourism and cultural corridors" as areas of the city that have witnessed major historic events, while also being where the city's hectic economic and somewhat grittier social life is clustered. While they have consequently lost a good deal of dignity and luster, the corridors remain the center of the capital's tourism, financial and commercial services as well as entertainment and religious activities.

Noting that Mexico City is the country's top national tourist destination (over Cancun, which is the top international attraction) with over 7.5 million domestic tourists and 2.1 million foreign visitors each year, the capital's tourism authority has found these corridors to have a very promising business potential.

Following other international urban centers, the service industry is replacing the industrial sector as Mexico City's economic engine, and it is clear that tourism is responsible for much of its growth.

In 2001, the Federal District received 2.1 million international tourists (50% from the United States and Canada, 26% from Europe and 16% from Latin America), who brought in an estimated US$1.8 billion to the capital.

"There are 47,000 hotel rooms in the city and 2,000 restaurants of tourist quality," said Carlos MacKinlay of the capital's Institute of Tourism Promotion.

"There are 10 archaeological sites (not including Teotihuacan, in the State of Mexico), 100 museums, 350 art galleries and 70 theaters."

And one of the most visited areas is the historic downtown area. Paseo de la Reforma has long been abandoned as a place for a stroll, but 16 new cafes near the Angel, due to open by mid-year, are planned to turn this around.

"Last year, Conde Nast Traveler U.S. called Reforma 'the Champs D'Elysees of the New World,'" MacKinlay observed, "We want to keep this image going."

PROJECTS IN THE MAKING

In addition to the tourism-focused aims-such as promotion abroad and within the republic, restoration of historical buildings, and new tourism and cultural activities in pedestrian areas- the Corridors Program is supporting urban renewal and expansion projects and advancing real estate investment.

The density of strategic sites in the first corridor, running from the Fuente de Petroleos, through Av. Juarez, along Calle Madero up to the Zocalo (with a perimeter of three or four blocks beyond), is impressive. It includes 529 service providers, 85 financial establishments, 12 parks, nine government buildings, 181 restaurants, 98 hotels with 13,175 rooms, 142 travel agencies, 23 car rentals, 29 museums, 25 churches, 21 historic areas, eight art centers, seven fountains and monuments, 10 squares and plazas.

The second corridor from the Zocalo up to the Basilica presents an added challenge of increasing the quality of life of inhabitants with urban development and improved infrastructure. The greater comfort and security of worshippers will be a target for June, when a Papal visit is planned along with the canonization of Mexico's Juan Diego, and attractive lodging and food services are planned around La Villa. Currently this corridor has 13 service providers, four restaurants, eight hotels with 587 rooms, 18 tourist attractions and only one travel agency.

By January 2002, private sector investors had already made major investments to develop hotels, offices, residences and convention facilities, most of which are scheduled for completion by mid 2003.

Specifically addressing the Historic Center are the close-on surreal joint forces of Mayor Lopez Obrador, President Vicente Fox and business magnate Carlos Slim, who heads the joint public- and private-sector committee. Slim is personally committed to the US$15 million restoration of the Torre Latinoamericana, which may be converted into a commercial center.

The fanfare attending the corridors program grandiosely aims to return Mexico City--with 677 years of history--to its rightful place on the international stage as "the cultural capital of the Americas." More to the point, the so-far well-orchestrated effort of public administration and private enterprise serves to nudge away some of the misconceptions that hinder visitors--both international and national--from seeing what a rich, multidimensional and world-class city it is.

Barbara Kastelein writes about Mexico travel and tourism for Fodor's Travel Publications, Conde Nast Traveller (UK) and the Sunday Express newspaper in London.