Colourful, exotic, diverse and beautiful, Mexico is one of the world’s top tourist destinations where no two people have the same impression. Some visitors leave with the peacefulness of the turquoise blue waters of Mexico’s Caribbean beaches in their soul, while others go home raving about the food. For other tourists, the archaeological sites and the “magical towns” leave an unforgettable impression, and for many others, the adventure sports, the world-class fishing, or the awesome surf on the Pacific coast carve out a permanent spot in their adrenaline-filled memories.
Mexico has a tourism product that is so special it simply sells itself; nevertheless, the sector is receiving an added boost from President Calderón himself, who has take tourism promotion to a whole new level. Gloria Guevara, Secretary of Tourism, affirms: “No other president – and I say that without fear of being wrong because this was confirmed by Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the United National World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) – there is not another president on the planet who has supported tourism like President Felipe Calderón.”
In fact, Mexico took full advantage of its turn as host of the G20 earlier this year to introduce tourism for the very first time in the G20 Declaration. “There is a whole paragraph, number 25, dedicated to tourism. It talks about its contribution and above all, how it supports economic growth,” says Mrs Guevara.
She points to the fact that the tourism and travelling industry accounts for 9 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product, and that one out of every dozen people working in the world today is somehow related to tourism. “This speaks highly of its potential and the number of people it employs, so it is essential for us to bring the topic to the table,” she says.
The inclusion of tourism in the G20 Declaration did not come easy, however. It was President Calderón’s involvement that definitively turned the tides, according to Mrs Guevara. “When we submitted the declaration, he wrote a personal letter to each one of the G20 leaders to tackle the issue. That gave us a guideline from before the G20 Summit, when the negotiations for the declaration started because that had to be worked on long before. In the end, there were negotiations and modifications, but thanks to President Calderón’s support, we managed to keep that paragraph. As odd as it sounds, some G20 countries were reluctant to keep the paragraph in the final declaration,” she recalls.
“There is not another president on the planet who has supported tourism like President Felipe Calderón.”
“We’re changing the conversation about Mexico and people are talking about something other than the challenges we face.”
Gloria Guevara,
Secretary of Tourism
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Also instrumental in highlighting the relevance of the tourism sector was the work of the T20, a members-driven initiative that counts on the full support of the UNWTO. One month prior to the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico hosted the fourth T20 Ministerial Meeting of Tourism in Mérida, Yucatán. The premise of these meetings is to promote the dialogue between tourism ministers of different countries.
The session held in May of this year was especially important, as it was the first time all representatives were present. Also, whereas generally over a dozen topics are dealt with during the two or three day meetings, this year’s agenda dealt solely with the issue of facilitating visa regimes and migratory processes.
One proposal was the creation of regional visas so that, for example, a Chinese visitor to Mexico can use a single visa to travel to other destinations in Central and South America, rather than having to apply to each individual country. In fact, starting November 1, visitors need just one visa to travel around Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia – the four members of the Pacific Alliance, an economic union formed in April 2011.
Mrs Guevara’s task of promoting Mexico as a tourist destination, she says, is quite easy, owing to the government support she receives and to the fact that Mexico has a special recipe.
“I have been to many countries and the more I visit, the more I realise no other place applies Mexico’s formula: from culture to history, sunny beaches, adventure and gastronomy. We are between North and South America, relatively close to Europe and half way between Europe and Asia,” she explains. “Add to that the high quality service that Mexico offers – I have not been able to find that combination anywhere else. It doesn’t exist.”
And the numbers back up this affirmation: 98 per cent of tourists to Mexico are repeat visitors. “For every 100 people that visit us, 98 come back,” states the Tourism Secretary. Last year saw a record number of national and international tourists – over 191 million – and Mrs Guevara claims that given the figures already seen this year, records will be broken yet again this year.
While the majority of tourists still hail from the US and Canada, Mexico is targeting more diverse markets, especially in Europe, where its campaign
Mexico Today aims to highlight the positive.
“Mexico Today is the response to the absence of information that was left for a couple of years, a void that was filled with less than good news, unfortunately. And now we are catching up. The campaign reaches out through testimonies of people who do business and helps us put some perspective in place,” says Mrs Guevara.
“What are the results? We are changing the conversation about Mexico and people are talking about something other than the challenges we face. There is still a good deal of ignorance in some European markets regarding the size of our country – that we have 2,500 municipalities and that only 80 live the challenge that we face today. Yet, the distance between those places and the tourist destinations is the same to that between Madrid and Moscow.”
Ultimately, Mexico Today is a strong brand that helps give proper context to various aspects: sustainability, economy, culture and tourism, and that addresses everything that is being done.
Mrs Guevara welcomes everybody to
visit Mexico “to marvel at our landscapes, our cultural and historical richness and, of course, our gastronomy – which was declared a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – and the warmth of our people.”
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