Mexico praised for recovery success

Mexico has been praised for its progress in recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Wilma last year.

The clean-up and recovery operation put in place by local authorities and tourism chiefs has helped the area's leading resorts to slowly return to normal and ensure that visitors continue to travel to Mexico.

Francesco Frangialli, general secretary of the World Tourism Organisation, acknowledged the huge amount of work carried out in the hurricane-damaged areas and set the progress out as an example to others.

"Getting these resorts back into action so quickly after such a destructive hurricane is a credit to the combined efforts of both public and private sectors in Mexico," Mr Frangialli said.

"With climate change increasingly threatening the livelihood of the tourism industry, the speed and efficiency shown in the recuperation of these resorts is worthy of being a role model to be followed by other destinations around the world."

Tourist numbers in the Caribbean coastal resorts of Mexico have actually increased, he pointed out, rising to 22 million and spending around $12 billion in the resorts.