The Sociopolitical History of Sun-and-Sand Tourism in Mexico: Tourist Imaginaries and Resort Development from Acapulco to Cancún

Abstract Histories of Mexico’s lucrative sun-and-sand tourism development have focused overwhelmingly on economic motivations and impacts, neglecting the political dimensions of how resorts were planned and how they were experienced by working-class residents. “The Sociopolitical History of Sun-and-Sand Tourism in Mexico” argues that the spatial planning of, and mid-century political contests over, Acapulco’s tourism economy, as well as rural political discontent in Guerrero and beyond, set the political and technical parameters within which Mexican officials planned resort destinations in the 1960s and 1970s. This article builds on recent scholarship that fuses political-economic and cultural approaches to examine the political culture of resort centers, wherein the actions of both elite and popular groups explain how resort development took place in Mexico. It tells the neglected political history of resort development in Mexico, beginning with the 1940s planning of Acapulco through the populist reforms of President Luis Echeverría (1970–1976).