The World Travel and Tourism Council delivered its annual awards: the “World Travel Award”, and among them, it awarded Mazatlan as the “Best tourist destination in Mexico and Central America.”
Surely, many will find this decision surprising, because of the stigma of insecurity that has long been dragging the state of Sinaloa, but more astonishment may cause them to know that it is not the first time that it happens, since the international body awarded the same diploma last year. That is, in 2019 the Mazatlan port endorsed the award that it had already received in 2018.
Many, too, will wonder how this is possible for two consecutive years, if Mazatlan competes nationally with places like Cancun, Riviera Maya, Los Cabos, San Miguel de Allende or Mexico City itself, to name just a few; besides that in Central America, there are also other outstanding destinations.
Perhaps the answer to this question is in the Tourist Tianguis that was held in Mazatlan, and everything positive that this, the maximum event of the sector in our country, brought to the destination.
For several years, since the Tianguis ceased to be exclusive to Acapulco, during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, the Sinaloan government sought unsuccessfully to win the venue of this event, until it finally got it for 2018, beating Jalisco states and Querétaro, who also applied.
The news was announced on February 2017, when the ruling was announced by the Selection Committee composed of the Ministry of Tourism, Fonatur and the Tourism Promotion Council of Mexico, while the private initiative took part Concanaco-Servytur, the National Tourism Business Council and the Mexican Association of Hotels and Motels, since when they become itinerant, destinations have to compete to be the hosts.
As the members of the Committee then explained, the aspects that were evaluated were the installed capacity, connectivity, offer of tourist services, commitment of state governments and complementary support. And, when comparing the offers of each applicant, Mazatlan was the most appropriate.
In previous Tianguis, with the aim of making memorable events, the host destinations spent a lot of money on temporary infrastructure or parties of up to a million dollars, which did not transcend beyond the mood of the guests for a few days, without inheriting Nothing transcendent to the city.
But the Governor of Sinaloa, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, apparently understood the lesson and decided to do more than perishable infrastructure and large parties for a few hours.
Those who have attended the Tianguis de Mazatlan last year will no doubt remember the impressive opening night, which included the presentation at the Angela Peralta Theater of an excerpt from “Luzia”, the show that the Cirque du commissioned by the Mexican government designed Soleil based on national culture; Then there would be dinner on the boardwalk with around 1,300 guests, who while eating could listen live to a symphony, and then watch all the floats of the carnival parade. The great pylon was to admire the pyrotechnic fires that lit the sky for almost half an hour. Great party, no doubt.
All this had a high cost and it sounds the same as others had done. But the big difference was that, during the year prior to the completion of this Tianguis, Governor Ordaz Coppel also invested a large amount of money in replacing the seawall and the Historic Center, among other parts of the port.
That night, after dinner, a group of friends toured Plaza Machado and other parts of the Historic Center, which were empty of people because the bars and restaurants did not open. Then we could admire how beautiful the streets and buildings looked with the lighting that was installed at the sidewalk level.
I returned to Mazatlan earlier this year and I was able to walk those streets and the boardwalk again, to really appreciate that part of the port underwent a transformation that contributed a lot as a tourist destination.
As explained by the governor, the resources in that remodeling amounted to three billion pesos, with the idea of carrying out a relaunch of Mazatlan as a tourist destination during the Tianguis, in addition to investing 400 thousand dollars in promotion during the year, to which its added another 300 thousand of the private initiative. Thus he showed that the event is not only tinsel, but it can also be used to make permanent investments that bear fruit. And there are the results.
Source: el financiero
The Mazatlan Post
