Tourism in Mexico requires measures and actions to promote its diversification, emphasizes the Tourism Sector Program 2020-2024.

In that document, released this Friday by the Tourism Secretariat (Sectur), it is argued that the destinations of Cancun-Riviera Maya and Mexico City concentrate 58.1% of international tourists in the country.

This favors the lack of inclusion in the development of many potential tourist destinations, including Viceregal Cities, Magical Towns and World Heritage Cities, declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

In terms of accommodation and lodging infrastructure, there is also a strong concentration. In 2018, 22,560 establishments with 808,139 rooms were registered, where five entities concentrated 33.8% of the offer in number of rooms: Jalisco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla and Quintana Roo.

Another relevant factor is the economic structure of the tourism sector, predominantly determined by the presence of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which constitute, according to Inegi data, 99.7% of tourist establishments that exist in the country.

Tourism and potential

In air transportation the situation is not very different. Of the 25 million passengers who arrived on international flights during 2019, six destinations concentrated 92.6% of passengers: Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana and Los Cabos.

On the other hand, the RNT accounts for 30,906 tourism service providers, where 92.2% of the registered businesses correspond to those related to travel agencies, food and beverages, as well as accommodation and tourist guide service providers, a situation that indicates the importance to promote the development of a greater number of suppliers in other categories and ensure the quality standards with which they operate.

In order to have an environment that fosters the generation of new services and products, Sectur affirms that a regulatory framework is necessary to guarantee the safety and quality of tourist activity.

Currently, there is the General Tourism Law, its Regulations and seven NOMs that apply to different services and activities; However, in recent years there has been an increase in non-compliance with contracted tourist services.

Magic towns

Likewise, it will be necessary to strengthen the sources of information that feed the statistical and geographic systems to promote the development of tourism.

An example of this is the case of Magical Towns, where it is necessary to apply important changes in this matter in the face of the challenges of a more competitive market.

At the end of 2018, only 27% of the towns with this denomination have partial statistical information on tourism activity, which makes it impossible for more than 17 years after its operation to measure the real impact of tourism in these destinations.

Improving quality throughout the tourism sector will be essential to position Mexico as a leading destination. From 2014 to 2018, there was an increase of 40% in citizen complaints about the provision of poor tourist services, so it is necessary to recover the confidence of the actors and promote legitimate commercial action with timely information for the legal security of visitors National and international.