Mexico City tourism authorities expect 29.653 million tourist arrivals this year, representing a total increase of 1.7% over 2015, according to an announcement from that city’s Director of Tourism, Torruco Miguel Márquez.
Referring to the city’s participation in the International Tourism Fair in Madrid, he said that of this total, 13.6 million will be staying in hotels (2.2% more than in 2015) and 16.058 million will stay with relatives and friends or in their own accommodation (1.3% more than in 2015).
He said that the tourists staying in hotels during their visit to the Mexican capital in 2016 will have an economic impact of around 77 billion pesos, i.e., 6% more than in 2015.
The Mexico City’s Tourism Secretary launched recently the 2016 international promotion plan in Madrid under its “Operation Knock on Doors” strategy [Operación Tocapuertas].
During this first part of the working tour, prior to the opening of the International Tourism Fair (FITUR), the largest tourist event in the Spanish-speaking world, Torruco Márquez met with students of the European School of Management and Business (EUDE).
Mexico City’s Tourism Department will work with EUDE throughout the year to enable just over 200 of the city’s students to benefit from scholarships to pursue online graduate studies in tourism at this university.
EUDE will award these scholarships to the most outstanding students of higher-education institutions in Mexico City that offer various tourism programmes so they can continue their training in areas of Tourism and Hospitality Management as well as Tourism Marketing.
Torruco Márquez delivered the keynote address "CDMX, Product Integration Success Story," to undergraduate and postgraduate students, noting that success in the tourism business is the result of several factors, the first of which is the political will of the Government of Mexico City to consider this activity a priority.
The second one, he said, is the private sector trust to invest and support the city as the Mexican hub, the leading edge of Latin America and a platform for the North American market.
The third factor, he explained, was the product integration that has been developed during the tenure of the present administration.
Similarly, as part of the pre-FITUR working tour, the CDMX tourism official will meet with 30 of the leading wholesale tour operators and travel agents, as well as Spanish media representatives. His aim is to introduce the new products, services and infrastructure that the Mexican capital has to offer the European market.
During the first part of his visit he will use the full meeting of the tourist industry in Madrid to establish agreements to allow further development of two priority issues: training and promotion of the CDMX destination.
In this regard, he mentioned that 170,854 Spaniards visited Mexico City in 2015. Their average stay lasted four nights at a cost of $994, not including air and ground transportation.