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.

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

Rosarito Beach Hotel Plans Specials To Promote Ongoing Tourism Increase

MEDIA CONTACT:                          
Ron Raposa                                                                      
ronraposa@hotmail.com

Following last year's 17 percent increase in U.S. visitors, the landmark Rosarito Beach Hotel has a number of price promotions, packages and special events planned to continue the ongoing upswing this year.

With Easter week a popular time for vacation and holiday getaways, the hotel offers a weekday package from $79 that includes an oceanfront room and two dinners for adults, plus free stay and dinner for two children under 12. The Easter weekend rate starts from $109.

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.

www.bajainvestment.com

U.S. expats want tourists to return to Baja California

ENSENADA In their campaign to bring back U.S. visitors, Baja California authorities are increasingly looking to a new source of support: testimonials from members of the state’s U.S. expatriate community.

Tillie Foster, 79, is a U.S. expatriate who lives in Ensenada and is queen of her local Red Hat chapter. In the background are dancers from a local high school who served as entertainment for the first Baja International Community Mega Mixer. / Photo by Sandra Dibble * U-T

Through family connections, business contacts, social media, radio programs, promotional videos — any means that are at hand — residents such as Tillie Foster have been gladly stepping up to support their adopted home.

“Baja’s been good to me. I’ve made so many friends here,” said Foster, 79, a member of the Baja Image Committee who moved to Ensenada from Orange County 36 years ago. “I hate to see what’s been happening over the past five or six years.”

Foster was one of the promoters of the first Baja International Community Mega Mixer, held last Thursday at the historic Hotel Riviera del Pacífico, a civic and cultural center in downtown Ensenada. The gathering drew an estimated 300 expats from different parts of Baja California, many of them eager to share their viewpoint about life south of the border.

“It’s more relaxed. We’re done with snow, we’re done with cold,” said Gary Pliley, a 64-year-old retiree from Utah.

“You make friends here that you could call at two in the morning if you needed help,” said Carol Main, 69, who moved to Baja California from San Diego.

Also at the Thursday event was Vivian Scott, a marketing professor from Nevada. She was instrumental in persuading Las Vegas-based radio host Les Kincaid to broadcast his one-hour program, “Wines du Jour,” from an Ensenada hotel later that day.

“We have an investment in Baja,” said Scott, who with her husband owns a condo in San Felipe. “The farther you get from Mexico, the more entrenched the negativity.”

Ensenada, like tourist destinations statewide, has been struggling to bring back U.S. tourism. Hotels, restaurants and other businesses across Baja California have been working to recover from the sharp decline of American visitors since 2006, the result of a combination of factors, including the U.S. economic downturn, clogged border crossings, a new U.S. passport requirement and fears of crime in Mexico.

“The strongest testimony, the best, is from people who live here in our state,” Ensenada Mayor Enrique Pelayo, said as he addressed the Riviera gathering.

North of Ensenada, Rosarito Beach saw roughly a 70 percent drop in U.S. visitors from 2005 to 2010, said Hugo Torres, owner of the hotel and the city’s former mayor. For the first time in years, the downward trend was reversed, he said, as his hotel registered a 17 percent increase in Americans in 2011 over 2010.

Torres, who is president of the Baja Image Committee, has joined state tourism authorities in seeking out the support of members of the expatriate community, made up of an estimated 25,000 full- and part-time residents.

Their endorsements “are one more way of projecting an image that things are right, conditions are right for people to come down,” said Juan Tintos, Baja California’s Tourism Secretary.

Last year, Tintos’ office commissioned a 10-minute promotional video titled, “What is Baja?” The video draws heavily on interviews with U.S. visitors, residents and promoters such as Gary Foster, who runs the twice-yearly Rosarito-to-Ensenada bike ride.

“Turn off the TV and talk to someone who’s been there,” said Foster, whose event has suffered from the drop in U.S. visitors. “The tourists that travel to Baja are the best ambassadors Baja has because they know the real story.”

sandra.dibble@utsandiego.com • (619) 293-1716 • Twitter @sandradibble

www.bajainvestment.com

Mexico's Booming Economy – What Investors Need to Know

By Richard Houghton & Sean O'Neal

Mexico's economy is on fire and now is the time to invest, if today's news headlines are any indication. Check out the impressive array of information below, which we have gleaned from a wide variety of stories written recently by some of the world's most respected financial institutions and reporting agencies. According to Goldman Sachs, Mexico's rapidly advancing infrastructure, increasing middle class and rapidly declining poverty rates will foster a higher GDP per capita than all but three European countries by the year 2050. This estimate might be conservative, when you consider that according to Forbes magazine Mexico's economy and GDP was already 11th in the world as of 2010, which Bloomberg, CNBC and Reuters all noted was a growth of 5.5 percent that year – the most in the last decade. Furthermore, NASDAQ has called Mexico “one of the world's largest developing economies,” pointing out that per capita the Mexican economy is already larger than those of China, India and Brazil. In addition, UK Trade & Investment has announced that it expects Mexico's economy to surpass the UK's by the year 2040, also pointing out that the UK is one of the largest investors in Mexico. A report by the Financial Times compared Mexico's current economic state to that of Spain 20 years ago, while IT exports from the country are expected to surpass $3.5 billion US in 2011 according to a report by Forbes Magazine. In addition, the European Union is working to improve its ties with Mexico by making it a “strategic partner,” while Honda has announced intentions to invest around $800 million according to a report by USA Today. Also of note, Bloomberg covered announcements from Nissan, General Motors, Mazda and Volkswagen to invest more than $400 million each in auto manufacturing facilities throughout Mexico. With all of this growth and international interest, it's no surprise that Bloomberg recently reported that Mexico has raised its forecast for foreign direct investment in 2011 to $20 billion US – a figure that is a full 11% higher than previous predictions. www.bajainvestment.com

How to Find Gas at $1.46 Less Per Gallon (Really)

By Dennis Romero Fri., Mar. 16 2012 at 7:00 AM Comments (6) Categories: Economy

Tricia Wang ​What if we told you we knew of a place where you could save about $1.46 a gallon on gas -- today? What if we told you, while you were in the neighborhood getting your cheap gas you could also dine on meals that have the foodie nation buzzing, get a huge discount on your prescription drugs, and take a picture with a zonkey (that's a zebra crossed with a donkey, but not really)? You'd say we sound like a cheesy salesman using the "what if we told you" ruse? Yes, but other than that you'd be all about this. Well, not so fast. You see, this non-mythical land of gas and gastronomy is 135 miles away, at least. So you'd have to dedicate a day to it. And the savings would do you no good unless you really wanted to go there anyway. But you do:

starlen Tijuana scenery. ​ A round trip drive to Tijuana with a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, with an average L.A. gas price of $4.35, will cost you nearly $59 in fuel. But if you fill her up in TJ (yes, despite what the New Yorker says, even locals have been calling it TJ -- for decades) you can see a savings of $20 on that 13 or so gallons it would take for your outing. The San Diego Union-Tribune says the savings between SoCal gas prices and Tijuana gas prices, given the peso exchange rate, is about $1.46 a gallon. And, yes, people in Southern California are already taking advantage of the discount. Heck, $20 dollars in Tijuana can buy you like a couple buckets of beer, a huge bag of crap weed (don't try bringing it across the border, though), or a nice dinner for two. Of course, Mexican gas is not as complicated as California's clean-burning blends (and that's part of the reason why it's cheaper), and finding Mexican gas with high enough octane for this reporter's car would be a feat. And then there's this: They kill people in Mexico. A lot of them, it seems. But mostly they're people in the business. Yeah, that business. But that's none of your business, so you're probably safe. And some locals now claim that things are much better in Tijuana -- so much so that the rich folks are starting to move back there from their second and third homes in San Diego. Given all that, it's still a little bit of a gamble -- like betting on the greyhounds at Caliente. But $20 certainly gives you a few more chips to play with. [@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews] www.bajainvestment.com