Off the wire
• Roundup: Laos to highlight progress in MDGs in UN forums in New York  • Venezuelan transport system strengthened with new Chinese taxis  • Japanese minister tenders resignation over Tokyo 2020 stadium flop  • China's carrier rocket Long March-11 succeeds in maiden mission  • FAO chief stresses links between conflict, imperilled rural livelihoods and migration  • Taiwan sees first rate cut in 4 years  • China to promote e-commerce to modernize agricultural sector  • Security under control despite alleged terrorist threat: Malaysian police  • Dengue toll touches 30 in Indian capital  • Australia Post suffers loss for digital communications  
You are here: 　 Home

Interview: Mexico buoyant on rise in Chinese visitors, determined to attract more

Xinhua, September 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Mexico's tourism officials are optimistic about an increase in Chinese visitors, but some believe that the country is not doing enough to attract this coveted segment.

According to Mexico's Tourism Ministry (Sectur), over 75,000 Chinese travelers visited the country in 2014, or 25 percent more than the year before.

That trend is expected to hold on, since statistics in the first five months of this year show the country received more than 39,000 Chinese travelers, 26.1 percent more than the same period last year.

China is seen as an important partner in Mexican tourism, and since 2013 Mexico has defined the area as strategic to promoting bilateral ties.

More effective measures are needed "to attract more Chinese tourists to Mexico. Currently less than 1 percent of the Chinese who travel around the world visit Mexico," said Jorge Hernandez, president of the Mexican Federation of Tourism Associations (Fematur).

Sectur, in cooperation with its Chinese counterpart, has declared 2015 to be the Year of China-Mexico Tourism.

As part of that push, assistant director of China's National Tourism Administration, Wu Wenxue, visited Mexico City in June to help expand cooperation in the field at both official and private levels. Mexican delegations have also visited Chinese cities on promotional tours.

Meanwhile, more measures would be in place to simplify and speed up the visa process, Hernandez told Xinhua in an interview in the lead up to World Tourism Day on Sunday.

Mexican tour operators "have also been calling for greater resources to be earmarked for promotion in China," said Hernandez.

Other creative proposals are being put into place, he said, which include multinational cooperation among Latin American countries to promote Chinese tourism to the region.

Tour operators in Cuba, Peru, Colombia and Chile, for example, are interested in "putting together special travel packages to attract Chinese travel groups to take a tour of two or three Latin American nations," he said.

"That's what we're working on and what we will table with officials to see how we can turn them into a reality," said Hernandez, whose organization gathers hotels, travel agencies and other tourism service providers.

Much remains to be done, Hernandez said, as a new agenda is in the make to boost tourism links with China. He also mentioned the recent appointment of the new Tourism Minister Enrique de la Madrid Cordero in Mexico.

The agenda will see to increasing the number of Chinese guides, boosting air connections between Mexico and China, and installing Chinese-language signs at airports, hotels and restaurants, he said. Endi