ot;The population, except for the concentrations in Chetumal, the state capital, and a few towns, [was] dispersed in hamlets and villages" (Encyc. Br. Online). This undeveloped land was situated outside of the already developed beach resorts that dominated the Mexican tourism industry. The reason for the isolation of parts of the Quintana Roo region was due to the fact that there were not well developed roads or communication linkages with sophisticated regions. Quintana Roo contained valuable untapped resources, such as: the many miles of white, sandy beach shoreline along the Riviera Maya, traditional Mayan communities, the Great Maya Reef and intriguing ancient Mayan ruins (Internet 1).
             The significance of Quintana Roo's undisturbed and natural areas was crucial to Mexico's tourism industry as other leading tourism countries were turning to a more environmentally based "ecotourism" (Daltabuit and Pi-Sunyer 43). The discovery of these untapped regions gave the Mexican tourism industry the resources necessary to attract this new tourism market.
             In 2001, "The Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo (FONATUR)" announced the allocation of 500 million pesos to continue the development of ecologically based tourism in the Quintana Roo region (Latin Am 17). There were some previous "ecotourism" developments in the area; but these attractions ran into reoccurring problems. Ecotourism can be defined as, "sustainable nature-based recreation and tourism" (Lindber and McKercher 65).
             Before these public and private national, and multi-national agencies, and corporations invaded this area springing up these "new" ecotourist attractions, the country, for the most part, had relied upon mass development of an area. Until this point, this type of rapid development was usually at the hands of outside investors, and national agencies who had different agendas, as well a...