Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Robert Redford returns to the big screen. Will be filming in Rosarito Baja Studios


It was back in 2007 when we last saw Robert Redford on the big screen with Lions for Lambs which he also directed. Now The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the actor will return from the hand of JC Chandor with the film All is Lost, a story of survival at sea a man that Lionsgate will distribute.
Chandor met Redford in the Sundance Film Festival last year when the latter presented Margin Call and after rumors that the actor could participate in his next film, Redford and Chandor finally reached an agreement. The film will have the same producers of her debut, Before the Door Pictures and will begin filming this summer in Baja Studios Rosarita Beach, Mexico, which was built by the Fox Titanic.
The film will be financed also by the almost brand new FilmNation the famous producer Glen Basner, who was highly excited to join a renowned actor and a promising young filmmaker:


"The combination of an exciting, new director and actor Robert Redford is iconic as a collaboration of the audience around the world will take notice.
By the time Redford is the only actor in this release confirmed to take place almost exclusively at sea and I would bet that after the incredible deal that got Chandor for his first film, and considering that now has won itself a large and Redford, names that may arise in the coming months to complete the deal will likely be very striking.
Currently the tireless Robert Redford is in post production the film The Company you Keep in whom also we will see in front of the camera next to Shia LaBeouf and Julie Christie, playing Jim Grant, an undercover activist go after a reporter who has discovered his identity. So here this is probably the role he really get to see the big screen after five years without action. Yet the good news to know that active, both in front and behind the camera, really promising projects.
Personally I will be very attentive to All is Lost having been Margin call a true demonstration of quality management with great performances. I value a director, and screenwriter, who managed what others so far not been able: to understand financial and economic crisis. Furthermore, if All is Lost focuses on a story of survival, as has my attention almost won.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Mexican Officials Hit Road To Promote Baja Tourism


May 4, 2012

Tovin Lapan


Hugo Torres, the former mayor of Rosarito Beach, Mexico, is on a mission to "replace fear with facts" and again lure U.S. tourists to his beloved Baja California.

Torres and Juan Tintos, Baja California's secretary of tourism, were in Las Vegas on Thursday as part of their tour across the Southwestern United States, spreading the word that the Mexican state just south of San Diego is full of great spas, wineries, restaurants, beaches and other attractions.

Thanks to increased border security, travel advisories from the U.S. government and negative perceptions of ongoing violence from drug cartels built over years, U.S. tourists are not traveling south of the border at the same rate as before the Mexican drug war caught the attention of international media.

While violence does exist in Baja California, it rarely touches the state's tourism community, Torres and Tinto told the Las Vegas chapter of the American Marketing Association during a presentation at Bali Hai Golf Club.

The number of tourists entering Mexico by plane hit 22.7 million in 2011, the most ever, according to statistics released in February by the Bank of Mexico. Yet, air travel to Mexico from the United States dropped 3 percent last year. The gains came from other countries such as Brazil, Russia, Peru and China.

Torres said that as news of the war between Mexican authorities and rival drug cartels spread in 2008, tourism from the United States to Baja fell off a cliff -- 70 percent, to be exact. Torres said the region had since recovered about 20 percent of that figure.

"The city of Rosarito had its lowest crime rate ever in 2010, but that is not the perception in the United States," Torres said. "People hear about violence in Juarez and the thought is that all of Mexico is dangerous. Americans don't know Mexican geography."

Torres also pointed to long border waits to re-enter the United States and a new regulation mandating U.S. citizens have passports to visit Mexico that took effect in 2010 as deterrents to increased tourism.

One Las Vegas travel adviser acknowledged wariness about travel to Mexico.

"We are getting a lot of questions on safety in Mexico, and I would say we didn't see as many college students asking about Mexico for spring break as we used to see," said Donna Steele, a AAA Travel counselor. "There is a reticence to go to Mexico. People are wary, and I think parents have been telling their kids, 'No,' when it comes to Mexico."

Steele and other travel agents in Las Vegas said they discouraged travel to border areas, including Tijuana, but have generally told their clients that most tourist areas, including Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City, are safe to visit.

The most recent U.S. State Department travel advisory on Mexico, issued in February, cautions against travel to northern, but not southern, Baja and 18 other states.

"You should exercise caution in the northern state of Baja California, particularly at night. Targeted TCO (Transnational Criminal Organization) assassinations continue to take place in Baja California. Turf battles between criminal groups proliferated and resulted in numerous assassinations in areas of Tijuana frequented by U.S. citizens. ... During 2011, 34 U.S. citizens were the victims of homicide in the state. In the majority of these cases, the killings appeared to be related to narcotics trafficking," the advisory states.

Tintos said he had met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and had discussed the travel advisory.

"We told him what goes around comes around," said Tintos, who estimated that Nevada sends the third highest amount of U.S. tourists to Baja after Arizona and California. "If they lift the advisory and we get more tourists, then our economy will be healthier. In turn, our residents will have the money to visit the United States."

The new campaign includes video testimonials from U.S. citizens and celebrities who live in and visit the Baja peninsula. The state hired a U.S. public relations firm and is touting attractions like wineries, top-flight restaurants, bicycle and automobile races, fishing and surfing. The campaign also involves the "road show," which visited 18 U.S. cities last year and has already landed in six in 2012.

The Mexican state also is promoting its film industry. The largest water tank in the world for use in filmmaking is in northern Baja -- James Cameron sank the Titanic there -- and several films are made in Baja each year. If Baja is safe enough for Hollywood, the thinking goes, it should be safe enough for U.S. tourists.

In one testimonial, celebrity chef Rick Bayless talks about filming an entire season of his show in Baja.

"I encourage everybody to come and explore," Bayless says.

Other initiatives the state has advanced and is promoting to prospective tourists are new border crossings and improvements at existing ones, an "enhanced" California driver's license that would allow holders to use that for U.S. re-entry in place of a passport, development of convention centers and resources for large events in the region, and medical tourism.

Rafael Villanueva of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority attended the presentation Thursday and said he was open to collaborative efforts that would draw more tourists from Mexico to Las Vegas and vice versa. Measuring the market is problematic, he said, because those who drive from Tijuana to Las Vegas most likely enter in San Diego and are counted as Southern California visitors.

"We've never negated the fact that there's violence," Tintos said after his presentation. "It is just like any other tourist destination in the world; you have to take precautions and be smart. I was mugged in Philadelphia. It can happen anywhere. ... We have a lower crime rate than many U.S. cities." 
Source: (c)2012 the Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.)
www.remax-baja.com

Monday, May 21, 2012

The Landmark Rosarito Beach Hotel Establishes Easter Weekend Records

By Ron Raposa

ROSARITO BEACH, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO---The landmark Rosarito Beach Hotel this Easter weekend had its highest occupancy rate in a decade and the largest number of guests in its 87-year history.

The Friday and Saturday occupancy rates of up to 88 percent were the highest for the holiday in 10 years. With the hotel expansion in 2008 from 230 rooms and suites to 500, those figures this year gave the hotel its largest number of Easter weekend guests ever.

“This was a wonderful turnout for both the hotel and all of Rosarito,” said hotel owner Hugo Torres. “It’s an excellent indicator that regional tourism should have a strong summer.”

Other parts of Baja also had a strong Easter weekend, which included improvements in domestic tourism, a category that has been especially strong in recent years.

While hotel occupancy increased by 17 percent in 2011 from the year before, the region had seen significant declines in tourism the few previous years, partly because of some highly publicized violence among drug cartels in various parts of Mexico.

“That though was largely confined to the cartels; in fact Rosarito had its lowest crime rate ever in 2010,” Torres said. “However, it’s taken time for people to realize that we are a very safe and extremely welcoming tourist destination.”

“Now that message has gotten out to the U.S. --- largely through our expatriate and other residents --- and U.S. visitors are returning and apparently will continue to do so this year in significantly larger numbers,” he added.

Torres also is president of the Baja Image Committee, a public-private group that works to distribute accurate information about the region.

In addition, the Rosarito Beach Hotel is promoting special packages and rates to attract visitors. Those include some rates as low as $109 in its 18-story Pacifico tower, which opened in 2008 with 271 luxury suites. This Easter weekend was the first time it has been filled.

The hotel offers fast passes to guests for quicker border crossings when they return to the U.S. plus a number of special events to make their stays more enjoyable.

This year, Cinco de Mayo weekend coincides with the spring edition of the very popular Rosarito-Ensenada 50-Mile Fun Bike Ride and oceanfront packages are offered starting at $79. The offer is both for people wanting to spend Cinco de Mayo in the holiday’s home country and those involved in the ride, which has attracted hundreds of thousands over more than 30 years.

On July 7 the Flying Samaritans will hold its third annual July 4th Beach Barbeque at the hotel. The gala seaside event attracts hundreds from the city’s 14,000-member expatriate community as well as visitors from the U.S. All profits benefit the group’s free clinics.

“We’ve got many other promotions this year, including our Spring Romance spa and wine package from $99, plus those who spend a $100 at the hotel get a complimentary Fast Pass to speed their return border crossing,” said hotel sales and marketing director Daniel Torres.

More details on these promotions plus many others offered at the legendary hotel are available at www.rosaritobeachhotel.com

The Rosarito Beach Hotel and Resort is a Baja landmark that has hosted millions of visitors since opening in 1925. With more than 500 rooms and suites, its amenities include restaurants, bars and an elegant spa. A luxurious 18-story tower with 271 suites opened four years ago.

The Rosarito Beach Hotel also offers time shares and full ownership of luxury suites through its condo-hotel program.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Chef Anthony Bourdain dishes on travel, family


The Travel Channel host likes Baja's creative chefs but not his 5-year-old's culinary choices.




Written by
Nancy Mills

Food guru Anthony Bourdain, 55, visits Finland, Portugal, Malaysia and Croatia in the eighth season of Travel Channel’s No Reservations.
But his favorite is Baja, Mexico. “There’s an incredible culinary scene going on there at a time when the tourist industry has been pretty much devastated,” he says. “I was really impressed by the do-it-yourself attitude of the chefs. They’re cooking as innovatively as they can for Mexican clientele. Parts of Baja, Mexico, are really beginning to resemble Tuscany.”
The foreign land he has yet to conquer is the palate of his daughter, Ariane, 5. Her favorite foods are “grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta with butter and hot dogs,” Bourdain says. “I don’t want to twist her arm, but I’d much rather see her eat sheeps’ eyeballs” than fast food.
Because of travel, Bourdain has little time to cook. Exception: “When my wife’s family visits from Italy, I’m ridiculously, goofily happy, and I volunteer to cook every night.”
www.bajainvestment.com

New Reading and Writing Program for Underserved Children

Baja Times


The Rosarito Friends of the Library will sponsor a unique new reading and writing program for underserved children in Colonia Morelos, an area located east of downtown in the far hills. The program, which will be held at the small Morelos public library, will begin on Saturday May 19 and will run for five successive Saturdays, terminating on June 16 with a gala final Fiesta.

Fifth and sixth grade participants will read brief biographies and family histories of selected Mexican heroes, and their comprehension, recall and writing skills will be practiced by providing written answers to prepared questions about those heroes. Each participant will also follow a prepared format to construct and write his or her own family history. The family history will require that the young writers interview parents, grandparents and other family members to gather as much information as possible for inclusion in that history. Spanish speaking volunteers will guide and assist the participants and score the written quiz answers and family history with credit given for penmanship and composition skills, spelling and grammar, neatness, completeness and timeliness.

Participants will compete for prizes such as new bicycles, scooters and roller skates which will be given to top achievers, and there will also be prizes for participants who exhibit the greatest improvement during the program. Snacks of fruit and juice will be offered each week along with numerous door prizes, and the final Fiesta will feature live entertainment, a dance contest, hot dogs, drinks, fruit, cotton candy and more door prizes for all kids who successfully complete the program. Additionally, each family history will be individually bound and displayed at the Morelos library before it is returned to the young author.

The reading programs for kids always generate great enthusiasm and eager participation, and the program is expected to fill up quickly. Because of the small size of the Morelos library the program will be limited to 45 participants.

Donations are requested to help fund the program, and Spanish speaking volunteers are also needed. Contributions to the Friends of the Library can be made by contacting Allan Browne at 661.612.3487 or by email at allan1browne@yahoo.com or at International Mail Center in Oceana Plaza. The phone number at the International Mail Center is 661.612.0155, and board member Elizabeth Carbajal can receive your donation there. Help us to help the young minds of Rosarito - support these youth reading programs.


www.bajainvestment.com