Maya 'End of the World' Poses Rare Travel Marketing Prospect Gay Nagle Myers - TravelWeekly.com
go to original December 6, 2012

2012 Magic Cancun Riviera Maya (Canada2Playa)

Where will you be on 12/21/2012?

It’s an important day if one is to believe the doom-sayers. In fact, it could well be the last day, in the highly unlikely event that their dire prophecies prove true and the end of the world really does coincide with the winter solstice on Dec. 21.

Armageddon? Apocalypse? Hype? Just plain foolishness? Yes indeed! — and a once-in-a-lifetime tourism marketing opportunity to boot.

The 5,125-year-old Mayan calendar, also known as the Long Count calendar, begins in 3114 B.C. and ends, of course, on 12/21/2012.

Here’s the thing: The Mayans themselves aren’t buying into theories that the end of their calendar means that the time’s up for our planet. But neither are they about to squander the many tourism opportunities presented by predictions that they clearly consider nonsense.

In fact, most Mayans are pretty excited about the “new beginning” and the “transition,” as they call the day.

Planning for 12/21 has been in the works for more than a year, and the tourists are coming from every corner of the globe — not to witness the obliteration of the world so much as to take part in the celebrations of historical and religious sites, customs, traditions and rituals to mark the end of the Mayan cycle of time.

Visitors have been arriving all year, but don’t worry if you missed all the fun up until now. There are plenty more parties and fireworks planned for this month — and the Mexican Mayans know how to throw a party, as do resorts up and down Mexico’s Caribbean coast from Cancun to Tulum.

So even if the world were to end on 12/21, at least it would go out with a party to end all parties. Literally.

In fact, celebrations and observances aren’t limited to just that coast or the Yucatan region now tagged as Mundo Maya (Mayan World). They are also taking place throughout much of Mexico and Central America that day.

The five southeastern states comprising the ancient world of the Maya are Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, home to Cancun and the Riviera Maya.

Feasting on the frenzy, tour companies, tourist boards, attractions and hotels have rolled out all manner of Maya-themed packages, events, festivals and excursions, from seaside meditation classes to stargazing at a Mayan observatory and rappelling while dropping seeds in the forests of Quintana Roo to leave a mark on the earth.

Xcaret, Cancun’s eco-archaeological park, offers a special nightly show called Xcaret Mexico Espectacular through Dec. 21 to commemorate the Mayan culture.

On the big day itself, visitors will watch the freeing of 104 macaws into the sky. The birds are significant to the Mayans because they represent the sun in the Mayan culture.

The Mayan calendar is a bit more complicated than our at-a-glance desk calendars, wall calendars or mobile devices we use to mark off each day of the year.

The Mayan version is based on a 20-day cycle in 394 increments known as baktuns. Dec. 21 marks the end of 13 baktuns and the conclusion of a key cycle of time.

But the Mayans insist the end of the cycle does not mean the end of the world.

That doesn’t dissuade goofball theorists from attributing whatever meaning they want to the Mayan calendar, which is carved into heavy stone stelae inscribed with intricate symbols that are indecipherable to anyone but scholars, astrologers and the Mayan people themselves.

And what those who can read the calendar say is that on Dec. 22, a new 5,125-year Mayan calendar starts marking time once more in baktuns. It’s simply the Mayan version of out with the old, in with the new.

Early on, the Mexico Tourism Board forecasted an onslaught of visitors to the Mayan region this year: more than 50 million domestic and international arrivals, according to one estimate.

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