From My
Balcony
"Vallarta,
with the Flavor of a Small Town"
By Nacho Cadena - Owner of La Petite France
Between the song of my neighbor's
rooster and the beautiful song of the children, off
tune, the bars of the national anthem of the school
down here, I dream awake about how a Puerto Vallarta
of the future would be.
I closed my eyes and returned to the present, asking
myself what it is that makes our place different
from the rest of the tourist destinations. Talking
in marketing terms, what will be the competitive
difference, the competitive advantage as experts
call it, of our Puerto Vallarta in relation to other
destination in our own country?
It is a fact that our visitors, the tourists, have
to face a lot of decisions before coming to Puerto
Vallarta. Where will I go on holidays? The first
decision is I am going to Mexico, Hawaii, Europe,
the Dominican Republic, or some other place in the
world. The magazines, the internet, the newspapers,
the TV are filled with ads and promotions for all
countries and, in the case of the United States,
for the different states that hope that their tourists
will not go out of the country but instead leave
their money in Arizona or California, in Florida,
Colorado or some other United State.
 If we are lucky enough that the subject, our client,
the potential visitor, has chosen Mexico as his country
of destination when faced with his list of decisions,
then he has to choose: Where in Mexico? Before his
eyes on the screen or the page are all the different
alternatives: Cancun, Acapulco with its AcaFest,
Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta, the Colonial cities,
Mexico City, Oaxaca, Los Cabos in Baja California
and all the rest of the Mexican tourist offerings.
If we are lucky enough again and our potential visitor
-it is only a potential thus far- settles on a beach
destination, what reasons would cause him to choose
Puerto Vallarta over Cancun and other places just
as marvelous that Mexico has to offer by the sea?
In an in-depth marketing analysis, specialists would
discover the preferential factors of each offering:
price, distance in relation to markets, quality of
service, level of promotion, cost-value factors,
characteristics of the place.
For the purposes of this column, I will attempt
to think using common sense more than anything, something
most uncommon in my personal case.
The Colors of Vallarta
Having visited and worked in nearly all the main
beach destinations in Mexico, I am convinced that
if we look at Puerto Vallarta as a product to be
offered to the world market and the national one,
the characteristic that makes it different, what
makes potential visitors like it, is its heart, the
old town. None of the other destinations is lucky
enough to have an authentic pueblo, nestled by hotel
zones to the north and the south. No other destination
has this piece of authentic Mexico, with its colors,
its facades, its gated entrances, its cobblestone
streets, its Malecon.
An original town, with flavor, a town that is for
real, not just scenery, a town where the people from
here live, where old families still have their homes,
where there are schools for the children, where there
are houses with patios, where the ladies still set
chairs out on the sidewalks to chat and watch people
go by.
A town that has a main square, churches, bakeries
at the corner, shacks that serve as stores and local
fiestas like any other Mexican town.
 I have often thought how marvelous it must be for
a foreign visitor to stay at a luxurious hotel, with
nice rooms, air conditioning, a cool, clean pool
right next to the ocean, and at the same time have
the possibility to buy an ice cream from one of those
vendors with little carts, or sit on the beach or
a bench on the Malecon to watch people passing by
or watch a parade or a pilgrimage to the Virgin,
or simply children coming out of school.
Watching the Essence
I go back to the main point. I think that Puerto
Vallarta as a destination would not be so successful
if it didn't have the good fortune to have evolved
around this beautiful little town. The ocean, the
climate, the vegetation, natural beauty, all of Mexico
has that. An authentic town? Only Puerto Vallarta.
In my opinion, if we want
to continue growing and consolidating our beloved
Puerto Vallarta, it is not enough to invest in
promotion, we must watch the essence of our product.
In another column, I will try to touch upon some
dangers I see looming with regard to our great
competitive advantage: the heart of Vallarta, the "old town".
With this thought in mind,
I set down my cup of coffee and go looking for
a book when I hear something on the local radio
station: "With you I learned that
the week has more than seven days, with you I learned
that I was born the day when I met you." What better
poetry is there? I salute you, Manzanero, the poet.
I originally wrote this
column -as is- in May 2001. Today, more than two
years later, I still think the same way with respect
to the value of the pueblito as an essential marketing
tool, as a fundamental value of our offering, as
an added value to the sun and the beach and the
weather. but today I am very
much concerned because I realize that, without realizing
it, we are attacking this factor, this difference
we are so lucky to have, at times we are attacking
our own heritage.
Once more I hear the radio: "Just one time, I loved
in my life." This town is magical, it will not let
us die. Puerto Vallarta is magical, let us all achieve
the miracle. there is still time, it is time to forge
the future of Puerto Vallarta.
See you next month...
Nacho Cadena
Owner of La Petite France
* From My Balcony is an independent column of Mr. Ignacio
[Nacho] Cadena, owner of La Petite
France Restaurant
in Puerto Vallarta and source of this information.
To contact Mr. Ignacio Cadena please email to: lapetitefrance@prodigy.net.mx
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