MEXICO - Tourism
Former Secretary of Tourism (Mexico City), Mexico
Bio
Carlos Mackinlay Grohmann graduated in Economic Science from the University of Grenoble and also obtained a Master’s degree in the same field. He then went on to complete his PhD at the Faculty of Economics at UNAM. He has held positions of varying seniority at the Ministry of Tourism, such as Director General of the Tourism Promotions Institute. He was also responsible for the Security and Tourism Program in Mexico City and Executive Director of the Office of Congresses and Conventions.
I have worked in tourism for many years, so when I arrived here in March I knew what we had to do. First of all, we had to pursue a national promotional campaign, and after that begin with a program of public relations in the US. Those were our two main activities. Our national campaign was the most important in the entire history of the Ministry of Tourism in Mexico City, costing approximately $10 million. Our strategy of public relations in the US alone cost around $2 million. For us, that is a lot of money. In the same way, we work with the International Tourism Fair of the Americas (FITA), and we have had great successes. Those three actions were the most important components of our strategy. There are many things that we do in the Ministry of Tourism, such as promotion carnivals. We went to 25 of the biggest cities in the country, and we did the same in South and Central America, where we received around 2,000 journalists or media personnel from around the world.
Over 2012, Mexico City will receive 12.5 million tourists. We have nearly 50,000 hotels rooms in Mexico City, and we will finish the year with about a 65% occupation rate, which is excellent since the traditional rate is 54%. We have an income from tourism of around $4 billion, which is the most important income we receive. With the economic crisis, Mexico City lost 1 million foreign tourists in two years; however, now we have recuperated by 50%. There is a lot of income lost because of that 50% we haven’t reclaimed. Mexico City employs nearly 300,000 people directly and 600,000 people indirectly in the tourism sector, producing about 80% of the GNP. Of those 12.5 million people arriving in hotels, 2.5 million are from different countries and 10 million are national tourists.
We are working with the Mexican Tourism Board in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago. We try to work together to have more resources and work in large and segmented campaigns in public relations. For the past few years, Mexico City has been sending the wrong message, which was “come to Mexico City because you can do anything you want here.” However, the people who came here couldn’t do that because they didn’t have enough time, money, or information. We are working specifically in different kinds of sectors to help boost tourism; for example, conferences, conventions, leisure, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), and medical sectors. We have to build in the US four different campaigns for these different targets. Mexico City is a large tourist destination with four UNESCO sites, which makes us unique. In our historic downtown, we have 1,400 colonial buildings and 176 museums according to the International Counsel of Museums, putting us just behind London and on the same level as Beijing. The Frieda Kahlo Museum is one of the most visited in the country. We have excellent infrastructure for culture and a very specialized side for conferences and conventions. Five years ago, we were 62nd in world destinations for conventions, and now we are 39th. There has been huge progress over these five years, and we think we will obtain an even higher position by the end of 2012. The LGBT sector is also very important for us; Mexico City recognizes same-sex marriages and adoptions. Because of that, we have increased LGBT tourism and we are building public policy around this kind of tourism. We are happy and proud of this. Mexico City is the second destination in the country for LGBT tourists. We are working on the medical tourism sector as well, especially from the US. Every year 1.6 million US citizens travel abroad to receive medical treatment. They go to India, Malaysia, Turkey, and Brazil; however, not Mexico City. Here, we have some of the most important private services. Mexico City could be the best in the world on price for at least 50 different operations of medium and high specialty. We are building a large platform of medical tourism around this information. We will create a call center in the US to allow people to have all the information they need in English and to share their files through four main private hospitals. Those files will be studied by the hospitals so they can quote a price, meaning the patients can make a decision in the US and pay there as well; then, they can come here to receive their treatment. It will be finished by early 2013. We in Mexico City have one of the most modern projects in medical tourism related to the US market. Those are the important things for us.
Those images are a very difficult thing to erase. One of the best examples is the pollution. We used to be in the top-three most polluted cities in the world, but now we are very far from the top, yet the perception still remains. In terms of security, it is the same. Mexico City used to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world with one of the worst perceptions, but the situation has changed dramatically. Over the last six years, Mexico City’s government has instigated very important security campaigns, with now more than 70,000 police officers on the city’s streets and a system of 1,500 surveillance cameras. Mexico City is now considered one of the safest cities in the country and in Latin America. Our new system of surveillance and increased amount of police officers had a huge impact on tourism. People coming here from abroad quickly changed their perception about the safety of Mexico City. The challenge is to change this perception in the US and the EU. Latin Americans already know this so they come here more and more, but we have lost the participation of tourists coming from the US because of that image. We have to erase this image and put a lot of money into campaigns to do that.
The new administration has to work in a structural way. The tourism in Mexico City is concentrated in the downtown area and the Chapultepec area, around the shrine of Guadalupe. We have to improve different areas. This is why we have launched a major program for learning, training, and certifying people from different parts of the city to become the best producers of tourism services, and we are trying to reach an equal level of quality over the entire city. That is one of the challenges for the next administration. The other challenge is to bring more and more shows to Mexico City, because in the last few years we have a new capacity of venues for that segment of the market. Also, it is important that we pursue public relations and advertising campaigns in the US. Things are clear in Mexico City and the new Mayor wants to develop tourism on a smaller scale, for example in neighborhoods. It will produce tourism in the city, the country, and at the international level.
© The Business Year – January 2013
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