The Escelera Nautica Is A 'White Elephant'

By Alberto Aldrete Valdez
Issue #455

The businessmen that have relations with the tourism industry recently christened the Escala Nautica built by the Fondo Nacional de Turismo (National Tourism Fund – FONATUR) as a 'White Elephant' - because it does not yet operate despite the huge investment applied on it by the federation.

It was explained that far from providing benefit, the tourism complex, built with an investment of more than 200 million pesos (~$18.7M USD), has only brought inconveniences to the neighboring business.

"We are expecting to see at what time this starts because they are no longer working, which means they finished it - but we are not seeing any movement at all, everything is shut off", they pointed.

Meanwhile another seller of handcrafts at a nearby location pointed, "We can say that this project is only a white elephant because it is not operating. And it does not seem it will operate in the near future".

He said that a store selling fishing equipment placed nearby was not yet benefitting from the construction of the tourist complex.

"We were expecting more results from this investment because we are not speaking of small pesos, but of millions, maybe it needs a little more time. But a work well done speaks for itself before it is finished", he said, adding that he considered that the 200 million pesos expended was a fruitless waste.

"Since the beginning we knew this construction was not going to work because it was badly promoted, there is a lot of people that does not know it is finished, what services it provides. For instance I am really close to it, I'm right here, and if they don’t tell me it is already operating I would have never know."

Moreover, he pointed that there are very few people from Puerto Peñasco who own a yacht. "It was planned for a certain kind of people, and that’s why it is empty", he pointed out.

They considered that the money used by the federal authorities to create the tourist complex was used in the wrong way. This is because Puerto Peñasco has basic needs that have more to do with tourism, like the construction of more alternate roads that could allow the drivers to move from one place to another more easily.

</advertising>