Zona Rosa - Economy and Tourism

Economy and Tourism

Most of the business conducted in Zona Rosa is through retail establishments. The area is home to 714 businesses, which include 137 restaurants and 37 parking garages. It is still one of the city’s primary entertainment and shopping districts. It contains stores (especially clothing stores), cafes, hotels, chain stores, fast-food places, restaurants, major hotels, airline offices, banks, clubs and more. There is an antiques mall on Londres Street, and a large handicrafts and souvenir market called Mercado Insurgentes between Liverpool and Londres street, where a number of shopkeepers speak English and some take U.S. dollars. Approximately 100,000 people pass through the area each day, and an estimated 12,000,000 pesos is spent here each day.

Another prominent retail segment includes businesses that cater to Mexico City’s gay community. Since they were established in the 1990s, these businesses have grown in size and number and include sex shops, bookstores, movie theaters and exclusive hotels, as well as bars and nightclubs. These total over 200 businesses spread over 16 blocks, which is now considered to be the community business center. Most customers in Zona Rosa’s businesses are visitors from other parts of the city, foreign tourists, and businessmen who come from nearby office buildings concentrated on or near Paseo de la Reforma. The area that connects Metro Insurgentes with Zona Rosa tends to get crowded with street peddlers selling tamales, perfumes, handicrafts, pirated CDs/DVDs and more to passersby.

The attractions of the area for tourists, especially foreign ones, are the shopping, the cafes, and the nightclubs. However, these nightclubs, especially the men’s clubs, have a reputation for attracting prostitution, underage drinking, illegal gambling, and other crime, which has a detrimental effect on tourism. The general deterioration of the area, both in physical infrastructure, crime, and types of businesses, has been problematic for the area as well. Although the area is still heavily promoted by the city, its secretary of tourism has admitted that it has lost much of its international prestige and can no longer be assured of its status as a tourist attraction.

To counter its decline, the city has worked to rehabilitate the area, linking it with the more popular historic center through the Reforma-Centro Historico tourism corridor in 2005. There have been efforts to improve the area through the 2000s, which are projected to continued at least until 2012. This area was designated as a "Barrio Mágico" by the city in 2011.

Luxury hotels in the area include Maria Isabel Sheraton, Galeria Plaza, Plaza Florencia, Cristal Rosa, Geneve, Marquis, Aristos, Royal and Marco Polo. Despite the area’s problems, the 24 hotels in the area report an average occupancy rate of 80%, mostly from foreign tourists, year-round.

While the 38 bars and 10 men’s clubs known to police — including Crazy Bodies, Keop’s, Men’s Club, Foxy’s, and Solid Gold — report good business, they also create problems for the area. Many are linked to illicit activities such as prostitution, both male and female, which noticeable on the streets after 10 pm seven days a week. Another problem is “tarjeteros”, who crowd the area’s streets day and night (especially Genova Street), handing out cards and flyers to passersby advertising bars, clubs and other businesses. While this activity is legal, these tarjeteros have been accused of bothering area visitors and being associated with small-scale drug trafficking.