We set our sights on the resort area of Cancun, Mexico, a narrow strip of white beach balanced precariously between a lagoon and the ocean.

SINCE the 1970s, travelers winging from the Yucatan capital of Mérida to the holiday isle of Cozumel were all told about the biiiiiiiig plans for the enormous, largely empty sandbar right below.

PHOTOS: Destination: Cancun Cancun, as that sandbar's also known, has by now become a household name in much of this hemisphere and beyond for a variety of reasons - foremost, of course, is its swell expanse of beach.

Tropical sun, sandy beaches and the cool blue waters of Mexico's resorts have traditionally been a tempting lure for Long Islanders.

But with fears of a swine flu pandemic, some who were thinking about a vacation are changing their plans, Long Island travel agents said.

Customers are putting planned trips to Mexico on hold or canceling them as they opt for other destinations. Airlines are temporarily dropping fees if travelers change flights.

The last time Bud Olson visited Mexico, he ended up in a hospital with kidney stones and missed the ancient Mayan ruins in the seaside town of Tulum.

So when he heard that swine flu was sweeping through Mexico just weeks before he was to return this year, the 43-year-old Seattle, Washington, resident and his friends threw all caution to the warm Caribbean breezes and went anyway.

Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted its H1N1 flu-related warning against travel to Mexico, travel deals designed to bring tourists back to its beach resorts are flooding the market.

Buoyed by the Mexican government's announcement last week that it would invest $92 million in a "Vive Mexico" tourism campaign, tour operators, cruise lines and resorts are offering airfare credits, half-price rooms and reduced all-inclusive packages.

For the first time ever, I was actually a little nervous about going on vacation this month.  When the swine flu broke several weeks ago, I even called my travel agent to talk about cancelling.  But then I decided to wait, the initial panic subsided.  And I bought travel size hand sanitizer and I flew to Cancun.  For better or worse, I completely forgot about the hand sanitizer once I got there!

STANDING next to the rusted gears of a henequen-processing machine, I gazed out at a lonely cluster of the spiky, cactus-like plants in an otherwise empty field. One hundred years ago, countless acres of land in this area around the Yucatán capital of Mérida in Mexico were devoted to the cultivation of henequen, whose fibers were made into rope and twine. The crop was so valuable that it was nicknamed oro verde — green gold — and the ships that carried it away returned laden with European furnishings and luxury goods for the grand houses of the haciendas that grew it.

If the recent economic turmoil has taught us anything, it’s that even the most seemingly permanent institutions can go belly up. In the case of henequen cultivation, the combined effects of the land reforms of the Mexican Revolution and the invention of synthetic fibers spelled the end of the henequen boom after World War I and left many haciendas stripped of their huge land holdings, their houses closed up or abandoned.

Several big name performers are coming together to show support for Mexico's struggling tourist industry, which is in recovery mode since the outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu at the end of April. Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Fernández, Paulina Rubio, Enrique Iglesias, and many others will participate in two free mega-concerts to be held this month.

The "Jalisco en Vivo" concerts will be held on June 20th in Puerto Vallarta and on June 27th in Guadalajara.

For more information about this and other events in the month of June, see our list of June calendar of events in Mexico.

Article Source: www.gomexico.about.com