Canadian tourism increases in Mexico

Despite the swine flu (H1N1) crisis in 2009, Mexico received one million two hundred thousand Canadian visitors, which means a growth of 7.6 percent over the previous year.

During the thirty-fifth edition of the nation's leading tourist event in Mexico, Brad Miron, from Itravel2000 Agency, said there are many reasons to explain the increase and the insecurity is not a main concern.

He also said that Canadians know from experience how to handle health crises, as they experienced in 2004 with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) then (H1N1) virus was not an impediment to visit Mexico.

In addition, over the last year the Canadian dollar has appreciated, so come to Mexico was an excellent option compared to other destinations in the Caribbean.

According to some statistics taken by the Canadian Tourism Commission, 32 percent of the population wants to come to Mexico over the next five years, really an optimistic scenario.

Talking about insecurity topics, he explained there are two issues: reality and perception. The reality is that security problems are focused in some specific cities and do not affect tourism, and tour operators know that.

The perception is to believe the whole country is insecure because people of other nations don’t know Mexico’s geography and they may generalize when they hear the news.

Brad Miron explained the next strategy is to 'educate' the visitor and explain them that Cancun and Mayan Riviera are far from Ciudad Juarez.