As one of the only tourism boards left in Mexico, Dario Flota, general director of the Tourism Promotion Council of the State of Quintana Roo (CPTQR), shared some of the board's successes at a conference in Mexico.
The CPTQR is managing to stay quite busy these days, according to Flota. In fact, this year, the council will be participating in more tourism fairs than ever before.
One of the main focuses of the council, Flota noted, is to promote lesser-known regions such as Bacalar, Mahahual, Holbox, Maya Ka'an and Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo, and they have had much success in doing this.
As a result of the efforts of the CPTQR, Flota noted that it is impossible to find a room in Bacalar during the holiday periods, including Easter, summer and Christmas and, in Chetumal, hotel occupancy has reached nearly 80 percent. In addition, the island of Cozumel, which has long been a stronghold for U.S. visitors is now seeing more national arrivals as regional connectivity in the area grows.
While there are definitely struggles for Quintana Roo when it comes to growing the U.S. market, other regions are experiencing significant growth.
Canadian tourism grew by 9 percent, visitors from Colombia increased by 10 percent. However, visitors from Argentina declined significantly, more than 20 percent, and 60,000 fewer Americans traveled to the region, a drop of 2 percent.
"In the U.S. we face a series of particular challenges, a political rhetoric against our country that translates into information that is twisted, we can say that despite what is said, of the more than 20 million visitors who have been here including cruise passengers, we have not had any incidents in which the integrity of any tourist was affected," said Flota.
He further addressed the safety of the destination as a whole and that travelers shouldn't be worried about visiting Quintana Roo.
"Our destination and the efforts that the state government has made to guarantee the safety of the population and the visitors, have had a success that has been reflected in the position of the Department of State of the United States to maintain the state of Quintana Roo at a level two travel alert, which we share with some countries in Europe."
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