Loreto returns to spotlight with U.S. ad campaign
| December 01, 2010
The small Baja California town of Loreto recently launched a public relations and marketing campaign in the U.S. as part of a new effort to entice travelers to the remote coastal area midway down the Baja Peninsula on the Sea of Cortes, about 340 miles north of the Los Cabos resort zone.

The Mexico Tourism Board approved the six-month, $1.1 million campaign and provided half the funding. Mario Cortes, president of the Loreto Hotel Association and spokesman for the fledgling Loreto Visitors Bureau, said the goal is to "bring Loreto back."

The campaign will be focused on Southern California because the only international flight to Loreto is a Los Angeles service by Alaska Airlines' subsidiary Horizon Air. Horizon recently boosted Loreto service to daily.

Loreto has long suffered from lack of consistent air service.

Others are providing funding for the campaign: $100,000 is from the Baja state government; $150,000 from the Villa Group; $150,000 from Homex (the owner of the struggling Loreto Bay development); $100,000 from the Loreto Hotel Association; and $50,000 from La Mision Hotel in Loreto.

Loreto, a seaside village long known among fishermen and kayakers, was in the tourism industry spotlight several years ago with the building of the massive Loreto Bay resort and residential development, which fell into bankruptcy. Homex, a Mexican real estate investment company, purchased some of the Loreto Bay assets, including the former Camino Real Hotel, now known as the Inn at Loreto Bay, which is adjacent to the partially built residential development.

"Unfortunately, the [travel] market knew Loreto because of Loreto Bay, and when it [the original development company] went bankrupt there was no more communication and the advertising of Loreto disappeared," said Cortes, who has a long history in the Baja California travel industry. He is the former general manager of Hotel Palmilla in Los Cabos and is project director of new Villa del Palmar in Loreto.

The Loreto area, now with 600 hotel rooms, is expected to grow in 2011 with the first phase of Villa del Palmar Loreto. The development, 24 miles south of Loreto in an area known as Danzante Bay, plans to open 181 one- to four-bedroom condominiums in February. The timeshare property will operate as a hotel, and its units will available for booking through the Villa Group. The company's five-year master plan calls for seven resort hotels, a golf course and a residential community spread over 1,800 acres.

Cortes said the Loreto area has much to offer because of its close proximity to the U.S., natural beauty and safety. "We're less than a two-hour flight from Los Angeles, and we're rated the safest state in all of Mexico. It's a wonderful destination because of the majestic mountains, the five islands off the coast in the Sea of Cortes, where the sea life is magnificent. It's an unspoiled, tranquil, laid-back environment that has been carefully protected."