The arrival of foreigners to Mexico by plane weakens

So far there is no strategy for tourism promotion in the country

If so far the official vision assures that the figures prove that President López Obrador made a good decision closing the Tourism Promotion Council of Mexico (CPTM), it would be better not to insist on that message, because in the medium term the picture can change and much.

Until now, the main problems that are being generated by the lack of CPTM are the lower presence of Mexican destinations on digital platforms, less business at international fairs and vulnerability to the disappearance of a crisis management structure.

The real problem for the future is that so far there is no strategy for the country’s tourism promotion, which is also a great opportunity for the Tourism Diplomacy Council (CDT), which Ignacio Cabrera commands.

Were events that cost several million dollars expensive, such as those in Berlin, Paris or London during the last administration?

Was it an expense to invest tens of millions of dollars to bring Formula One to Mexico City?

In a country with so many millions of people living in extreme poverty, the obvious answer is yes, but the keyword is whether or not there was a strategy behind those decisions so that those resources were translated into investments and jobs that would exceed the investment on promotions.

If the answer is “yes,” then those million-dollar investments would have been justified and the best years of history for Mexican tourism point in that direction.

It has already been stated here that, due to the change in the methodology to measure tourism driven by the Inegi, it will be until this August when figures consistent with those of the eighth month of 2018 can be compared since the Bank of Mexico was much more conservative in your estimates

But here are some data curated by Gemes, by Héctor Flores Santana, based on figures from the National Migration Institute on the arrival of international travelers by air:

1. The arrival of visitors grew 1.3 percent in June and 2 percent in the accumulated of the first semester; while in the same period of 2017 and 2018, the increases were 11.9 percent and 5.3 percent.

2. In June, the arrival of Americans, the main market in Mexico, decreased 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent in the first half.

3. That of Canadians increased 6.8 percent on average in the first semester, but in June it only increased by 2.9 percent.

So far, the outlook is challenging, but not disastrous, and the question is whether by the end of this year Mexico will already have a promotional strategy that contributes to reversing the weakness of these data before they are clearly negative.

Black Monday. The economic tragedy that Argentina is experiencing, with a devaluation of over 14% in the peso-dollar parity and the collapse of its main stock market, will also impact Mexican tourism.

In the first semester, the Argentines who arrived from 281 to 213 thousand passed, which is 24.3 percent less; a fact that will be much more dramatic in the second half of 2019.

Source: dinero en imagen

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