Product Code Database
The Riviera Maya () is a tourism and resort district south of Cancún, Mexico. It straddles the coastal Federal Highway 307, along the Caribbean Sea coastline of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, located in the eastern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula. Originally the name applied narrowly, focusing on the area of coastline between the city of Playa del Carmen and Tulum. The designation has since expanded up and down the coast, now including the towns of Puerto Morelos, situated to the north of Playa del Carmen, as well as the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, situated to the south of Tulum. This larger region is what is currently being promoted as part of the Riviera Maya tourist corridor.
Once the area was originally only called the " Cancun–Tulum corridor", but in 1999 it was renamed as the Riviera Maya, analogous to the Italian Riviera and French Riviera, with the instigation of among others, Miguel Ramón Martín Azueta. At the time, he was the municipal president of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo. The Riviera Maya includes the municipalities of Solidaridad in the north and Tulum in the south, and extends approximately inland, to the border with the state of Yucatán.
Government development plans include establishing a number of medium-sized cities of ~200,000 inhabitants within the Riviera Maya with initial planning spanning 20 years. Target areas for urbanization include the towns and villages of: Puerto Aventuras, Akumal, Chemuyil, and Tulum.
A major attraction throughout the Riviera Maya are coastal and reef aquatic activities dependent on the beaches, coastal water and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (also known as the Great Mayan Reef) which begins near Cancun and continues along the whole length of the Riviera Maya continuing southward to Guatemala. This barrier reef system is the second longest in the world.
Activities at the most visited locations include jet-skiing, snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming in , swimming with dolphins, Zip-line, horse riding, sailing, and guided jungle tours. Archeology is also a big tourist draw in the area, including the popular archeological sites of the ancient Maya civilization, operated by the Instituto Nacional de Archeological, such as Tulum on the coast, and Chichen Itza and Coba located some distance inland. The self-named ecoparks of Xcaret Park and Xel-Ha Park also include some smaller archeological ruins as part of their attractions, but these natural water theme parks operated by private business consortia attract much larger crowds due to the diversity and range of activities provided, such as swimming with captive dolphins.
The whole of the Yucatán Peninsula is underlain by a density-stratified coastal aquifer system with a lens-shaped freshwater body floating on top of intruding saline water. The formation of caves (speleogenesis) within this coastal carbonate aquifer is principally associated with carbonate dissolution at the fresh-saline water contact within the aquifer. By 2008, the Quintana Roo Speleological Society (QRSS) reported more than of flooded cave passages within the limits of the Riviera Maya including the two longest underwater cave systems in the world of Sac Actun and Ox Bel Ha. These groundwater resources, accessed via the thousands of cenotes throughout the landscape, once supported the Maya civilizations and today remain the only natural sources of potable water in the area.
The Caribbean coastline is a series of crescent shaped white sand beaches interrupted every 1–10 km by rocky headlands and inlets, called , through which groundwater discharges into the coastal water. Large sections of the extensive mangrove swamps that lie behind the beaches and headlands are included in the areas scheduled for tourism development.
About north of Tulum, a new international airport was announced. In March 2011, the bidding for construction contracts was to be concluded.
The Tulum International Airport was finished in December 2023.
In 2018, construction started on the Tren Maya, which would run the length of the Riviera Maya and connect it with other destinations on the Yucatán peninsula.
|
|
