{"id":353979,"date":"2024-03-14T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.co.uk\/?p=353979"},"modified":"2025-01-29T13:42:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:42:32","slug":"puerto-vallarta-lgbt-tourism-gentrification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/travel\/puerto-vallarta-lgbt-tourism-gentrification\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Puerto Vallarta have a gentrification problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queer tourists flock to Puerto Vallarta, lauded as gay paradise, for its beaches and its hospitality. But are they inadvertently contributing to the gentrification of the city?<\/p>\n

WORDS BY NICOLE GARCIA MERIDA<\/strong>
\nHEADER BY YOSEF PHELAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a long running myth that it was John Huston\u2019s 1964 film The Night of the Iguana<\/em>, starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr, that launched the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta into the international stage. \u201cBut really, that was only part of it,\u201d says Otoniel Sosa Rodriguez, a professor and researcher at the Universidad de Colima.<\/p>\n

Puerto Vallarta sits on a strip of coast in the Mexican state of Jalisco, at the foot of the Sierra Madre Occidental, a major mountain range that runs through the Western part of the country. The Night of the Iguana<\/em>, and the drama surrounding its production, did play a part in Vallarta\u2019s publicity back in the 60s. Puerto Vallarta has existed as a tourist destination for over seven decades \u2013 you only need to look at pictures to figure out why. However the film\u2019s publicity and a combination of infrastructure development on behalf of the government kick started the city\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

Today, Puerto Vallarta is described as the San Francisco of Mexico. The city is Mexico\u2019s top destination for LGBTQIA+ tourism<\/a>, especially for gay men. \u201cWe can say it\u2019s LGBTQ+ tourism,\u201d says Otoniel. \u201cBut if we\u2019re being honest it\u2019s more gay men than anyone else really.\u201d Around a third of tourists in Puerto Vallarta are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and they have contributed a massive amount of money to the city\u2019s finances \u2013 tourism makes up for about half of Vallarta\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

But the city wasn\u2019t originally built for the massive numbers of people that descend upon it each year, which has forced it to change to accommodate this huge source of revenue. The landscape of the city started to change as property developers moved to meet demand.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Outmost (@thisisoutmost)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n