GOT YOUR TICKET YET? Mexico’s tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors over the coming year just to the five states richest in Maya heritage. Mexico as a whole is expected to lure just 22 million foreigners this year.
Mexico Mayan Region Launches Apocalypse Countdown
FILE – This June 1, 2007 file photo shows a Mayan statue stands in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, where people will gather before making their way across the Yucatan Channel, to the Cozumel Island, in a ten mile pilgrimage in honor of the Mayan goddess Ixchel. Only a year is left before Dec. 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world. While some doomsday theorists may suggest putting together survival kits, people in southeastern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, plan to throw a yearlong celebration. And to make a profit while they party.(AP Photo/Israel Leal) (Credit: Associated Press)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Seize the day.
Only a year is left before Dec. 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world.
While some doomsday theorists may suggest putting together survival kits, people in southeastern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, plan to throw a yearlong celebration. And to make a profit while they party.
Mexico’s tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors over the coming year just to the five states richest in Maya heritage. Mexico as a whole is expected to lure just 22 million foreigners this year.
It is selling the date, the Winter Solstice, as a time of renewal. Most Mexican archaeological authorities say that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar, not an apocalypse.
“The world will not end. It is an era,” said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. “For us, it is a message of hope.”
Cities and towns in the Mayan region are starting the yearlong countdown on Wednesday. The city of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border will start an 8-foot (2.5-meter) digital clock in its main park to begin the countdown exactly a year before the date.
i dreamt of a ticket number…does that count?