Mexico’s Pavillion, the largest from Latin America at FITUR
From the 24th to 27th of January, the International Tourism Fair of Spain (FITUR) held its 39th edition global meeting.
With the Dominican Republic as this year’s guest country, the event brought together 886 exhibitors, 8.3% more than last year, with 10,487 companies from 165 countries represented. This edition occupies 67,495 square meters, 2.5% more than in 2017, distributed in nine pavilions.
Federal Secretary of Tourism Miguel Torruco was present at the Mexico Pavilion. He highlighted that Mexico’s Pavilion was the largest of any Latin America country, and is the place where the country’s states, tourist destinations, airlines, hotel groups and tour operators all are present to show the world the touristic diversity and a bit of our countries culture offered to all who visit.
"Well, FITUR has always been the most important tourist fair for Spain and Latin America, and most especially on this occasion, my first attending as Federal Tourism Secretary, we are pleased to be following the same pathway, yet we keep improving, now you can observe more touches of what international tourism markets really like; the heritage of our ancestors from the pre-Hispanic era, that is the special focus we have given to our pavilion on this occasion.”
He also spoke about the withdrawal of Mexico’s Tourism Promotion Council and entrepreneurs’ initiatives to consolidate various private tourism promotion trust funds:
"We’ve just met with the business sector, and we are currently receiving proposals. Two commissions are going to be carried in order to create a new entity, where private initiative will have greater participation in selecting marketing strategies. We are also waiting for the proposals by state representatives as well as by international reps, this is a new scheme, a new model; we must leave apathy behind us. We must remember that the Tourism Promotion Council during the six years of ex-president Calderon, spent 13 billion pesos for promotion, in the case of Peña Nieto, it rose to 24 billion pesos, and because the balance is; if measured, from a point of view of foreign currency and per capita expenditure, and this is how best to measure the tourist potential of a nation; then we are in 15th place in collecting foreign currency and in 40th place in per capita spending; that being our reference and from that data, we have to create more products and create better products on a national level, as we are already doing, in coordination with state governors, so this way tourists are more motivated to make trips and obviously this in order to have a greater flow of the benefit for the general population ".
On the other hand, Baja California Sur was also present at this event, and through its Secretary of Tourism, Economy and Sustainability, Luis Humberto Araiza, who points out that he seeks to strengthen commercial ties as well as favor development for this activity.
He also spoke on the subject of the extinct Mexico’s Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM):
"Yes, as I said before, the idea to make up for the absence of the CPTM is by using Mexico’s Embassies abroad, where the Secretary for Foreign Affairs will play a leading role and at the same time we will use valuable people who worked within the CPTM and incorporate them into some activities of this nature ... there was no specific dialogue on each states situation, it was mostly broadly spoken of. I discussed the problems we could face if we did not have proper representation abroad, but I was told what I am sharing with you here. Also the idea is to create several Mexico Houses, like the one Mexico has here in Spain. The plan is to reproduce that, thanks to private resourcefulness in countries of most tourist flow importance for Mexico ".
Translation by Tony Perez Dillon
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