For decades, Cancún, the beach resort on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, has been one of the country’s main tourist attractions. Spring breakers flock there in their thousands, US families fly down for summer vacations and, increasingly, European holidaymakers go to escape the winter months.

Now, though, Cancún is about to have a rival: the Pacific coast project, which sits at the mouth of the Sea of Cortés, on Mexico’s west coast.