The tourism-finance nexus on the Mexican peninsula of Yucatán

Mexico is an illustrative case of financialisation in Latin America and the Global South and the transformation of public infrastructure into wealth creation mechanisms.

The transformation of the Yucatán Peninsula into a global tourism hotspot was the result of deliberate policies and interventions by domestic and foreign capitals, strongly led by the Mexican state. The Riviera Maya has consolidated a sun-and-beach model dominated by large-scale resorts operated by global tourism conglomerates; however, in recent years there has been a marked shift towards the financialisation of real estate operations.

Infrastructural Expansion

At the same time, the construction of new road and rail infrastructures is extending this model to other parts of the peninsula, involving infrastructure-oriented economic groups and the emergence of a new economic actor linked to the armed forces. The resulting forms of urbanisation are diverse and uneven.

The case study will analyse the key protagonists of the extractive system and how financialised accumulation of tourism and real-estates is linked to the transformation of space.