National Mexican Tourism Policy and North American Second Homeowners In Mexico: Local Tourism Development and Mexican Identity

North Americans buying second homes Mexico have increased in recent decades. However this type of mobility is poorly studied although the second home owners’ influence is important to acknowledge and becomes particularly important due to the North Americans’ cultural, economic and social capital. Still the Mexican state does not seize the second home owners as a resource and ‘producers’ rather only as consumers of different Mexican objects, food etc. The chapter addresses this research gap and proposes rather than only perceive North American second home owners as part of tourism development they need to be recognized as a significant and powerful actor. An actor who has the capacity to contest the Mexican state in the definition of what is considered a tourism place and space as they do not only define the tourism activities but what to be considered Mexican. This way they unintentionally participate in reshaping and reconfigure public policy and Mexican culture/identity construction. The purpose of the chapter is to explore the role of the North American second home owners and their impact on the planning and regulation of Mexican state policies, and how they might reconfigure practices and/or meanings of Mexican national culture and thus the construction of reality of tourism in Mexico. The chapter will, from a sociological approach, understand public policy based on the theoretical framework elaborated on “social construction of reality”.