The inflow of visitors to the Tequila Trail grew by 20 percent in 2014, amounting to 945,000 tourists, who spent 560 million pesos in the eight municipalities that make up this corridor in the Valles region of Mexican state of Jalisco.
To increase the attractiveness of this area, the Tequila Trail director, Martha Venegas, said that the private sector invested 851 million pesos in new hotels, remodeling, extensions and improved kitchen facilities or new transportation and furniture. Among the investments are the Los Mezcales and Los Jarritos restaurants and the Paraíso del Lago and Solar de las Ánimas hotels – the latter being due to open in February 2015.
As part of the actions taken to enhance the tourist experience, 90 business verifications were also conducted and the destination’s level of compliance with the Guide to Good Practice is 85%.
To promote quality, the civil association of Tequila Trail presented 16 companies with the Tequila-Tourism Gold Medal for full compliance with this manual.
"We trained 60 companies and 45 craftsmen, by teaching them about the changes in tax reform, strengthening sales tools, computer skills and English, business development and cultural promotion. Personnel from different TT Gold Medal companies were specially trained to upgrade their basic knowledge about the Magical Town of Tequila, the agave landscape and the whole Tequila culture," Venegas explained.
Ten new national and regional tour operators and 15 travel agencies from Guadalajara joined in the tourism promotion of Tequila Trail.
Martha Vengas explained that the average number of visitors who stay in the eight municipalities is 150,000 per year and that the aim is to increase the popularity of this sector.
"We continue to grow and to develop a high-quality, multi-theme product which enables us to be in the forefront of tourism in Jalisco".
The Tequila Trail is made up of 32 tourism products, 70 tourism companies, 32 liquor stores and 95 artisans in eight municipalities: Arenal, Amatitán, Tequila, Magdalena, Ahualulco del Mercado, San Juanito de Escobedo, Etzatlán and Teuchitlán.