Claudia Ruiz Massieu, Mexico’s secretary of Tourism / Picture: NEF
Julio García. Madrid.
Mexico stands out as the second country of international tourist arrivals in Latin America, with 23.4 million people. It also holds the first position in Latin America in the List of World Heritage. Being aware of the richness in this sector, which means 8% of its total economy, its authorities now want to boost the cultural and sustainable tourism.
Mexico’s secretary of Tourism, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, highlighted, in a breakfast organized by the New Economy Forum, the great tourist potential of her country, both due to its natural beauty, since it concentrates 10 per cent of the global diversity of species in the planet, and to its cultural attractions.
Now the Mexican Government wants to boost sustainable tourism in its 26 places declared Cultural Heritage, in its 5 spaces declared Natural Heritage and in one of them declared a combination of both. In order to do that, it has announced its intention of acquiring and setting in motion the Spanish model of the Network of Intelligent Destinations in three pilot destinations.
This network, patented by the Spanish company Segittur, intends to achieve towns that give priority to the ICT in order to promote sustainable development for their citizens and become an innovative tourist destination, consolidated on an infrastructure of cutting edge technology guaranteeing the sustainable development of the tourist territory accessible for everyone and making the interaction and integration of the visitor with the environment easier.
This model, Ruiz Massieu pointed out, will be implemented through the experience “Pueblos Mágicos” (Magical Towns), with a total of 83 destinations. This experience tries to get recognition for “its tourist attributes and generate a community development through them”. They are also interested in “copying” the Spanish business model of “Parodes”.
Tourism is the sector creating the most employment among the youth
The Mexican demography reflects a young country, with an average age of 27 years. The tourist sector is, precisely, the main employer in the country and that is why the Mexican Executive is making an effort, from the education, to achieve that sustainable tourism where there is a greater heritage so that the communities themselves are the ones assuming its protection and see it as an asset to preserve that can produce great benefits.
Another initiative is the “comprehensive effort” that the Mexican State carries out to eradicate the problems related to the lack of safety in the country. In order to tackle them, it tries to show the territories where crime happens and what the origin is while trying to highlight all the positive aspects of Mexico from the economic, political, social and cultural points of view.
Finally, Ruiz Messieu admitted that Spain is a referent “for us” and she underlined the “much strong cooperation between both countries”, both in matters related to tourism and in other business areas.
