Once a powerful platform, “Visit Mexico” website is now in total oblivion

Although the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) relaunched the Visit Mexico portal since the end of August, some of the main destinations in the country still do not know anything about the promotion strategy.“We see the page with great concern because for a long time Visit Mexico had been the tool for all states to showcase their tourist offer and in coordination with the Tourism Promotion Council of Mexico (non existant anymore), could generate better business opportunities, but now we don’t even know how it works, ”said Marisol Vanegas, secretary of tourism for Quintana Roo.She explained that the states have not received the official information and have only been notified that each of them would have to pay a minimum cost of 15 million pesos to be able to advertise on this platform.“We have our own page that comes out in December so we will not be using this website, and the price seems a bit excessive”.“In the case of fairs, Quintana Roo will go to London on its own resources, to be able to bring as many entrepreneurs as possible, because it represents greater benefits if we go as the Mexican Caribbean, but it is not the same case for other Mexican states,” she continued.Vanegas said that the first approach with Visit Mexico has been to know the amount, but they expect a formal proposal to know exact investment amount, and what they will receive in return.

In August, the Federal Tourism Secretariat relaunched the Visit Mexico portal so that destinations are promoted on that platform with their own resources.On the subject, Luis Humberto Araiza, secretary of tourism of Baja California Sur, commented that the organization of Visit Mexico does not yet have a well-established scheme on costs.“We had an informal meeting with the directors of Visit Mexico but they still do not have a fully established scheme attractive and financially feasable for us.”While Michelle Fridman, secretary of tourism of Yucatan, agreed that the states do not have the information necessary to analyze the proposal in order to be able to promote themselves through this platform.“We do not have the complete information, we do not know how many people are visiting the page now, or what numbers they have, we will have to analyze their data to see if it works for us, because our budget has been cut and we have to be very efficient regarding investment” .According to the secretariat of tourism, the page is now chaired by Marcos Achar and will be self-financing under a direct investment scheme of the private initiative.Miguel Ángel Cantú González, director of the Corporation for Tourism Development of Nuevo León, said that at the moment the state is analyzing how to promote itself in the world through various platforms. And added that the approach with Visit Mexico has been informal.Questioned on the issue, Miguel Torruco, head of the tourism secretariat, said that work is being done so that destinations can have the information.“In five months the new format will be released,” Torruco said.REGIONAL PROMOTION

• Visit Mexico will have a site for each state in the country, which will contain information on tourist attractions and destinations.
• The platform will offer travelers updated information on the destinations of interest.
• Travelers can make payments and reservations electronically quickly and safely.
• The page will contain exclusive and royalty-free content such as interviews, reports or television programs produced by international experts.
• There will be access to business intelligence information on the consumption habits of tourists in order to focus their promotion, according to the profile of their visitors.

The Yucatan Times Newsroom