Cancun, Q.R. — The Federal Secretary of Tourism says it will be next Thursday when they announce the recovery strategy in the gradual reopening of Mexico’s tourism industry, adding that initially, they will focus on domestic tourism.
Miguel Torruco, tourism adviser to Presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador, says it will be through an aggressive promotion campaign that will focus on the domestic tourist market. For Quintana Roo, this segment represents only 35 percent of the tourism it receives, however, for other states, it has greater relevance.
He says that during that marketing campaign, emphasis will be placed on traveling first to national destinations stressing that short road trips will be those most in demand after the health contingency. He explained that most travelers will do so by land, mainly in private vehicles, to avoid traveling by bus or plane.
Torruco explained that although the state of Quintana Roo has a higher percentage of international tourists, domestic tourism throughout the country represents 85 percent of hotel occupation rates during the high holiday seasons and long weekends.
He mentioned that they estimate there are 102 million Mexicans who will make short trips to 134 tourist destinations around the country. He added that Quintana Roo also receives a lot of regional tourism, mainly from the states of Yucatan and Campeche.
The upcoming promotional campaign will be announced next week, along with the program of health protocols to be followed in tourist destinations around the country in a bid for economic reactivation.
The announcement of the initial focus to be placed on domestic tourism comes as positive coronavirus cases continue to soar across the United States, which to date, is reported at just under 1.5 million people and over 88,500 deaths.
In 2019, more than 32 million Americans traveled to Mexico with approximately 7 million landing in the state of Quintana Roo to vacation in places such as Cancun and Riviera Maya.