Erika Cardenas
El Colegio de Jalisco

This paper has two objectives: the first is to review tourism policies that have been implemented in the Mexican coastal municipality of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and the second is to analyze demographic and urban impacts of these policies in the selected territory. Undoubtedly, Puerto Vallarta has recorded in the last 30 years robust tourism, high population increases and urban growth. The same dynamic is present in the neighboring municipality of Bahía de Banderas, located across the state line in Nayarit, forming today a metropolitan area of interstate character.