Keeping air borders open helped tourism – CNET

The president of the National Tourist Business Council (CNET), Braulio Arsuaga, recognized that the political decision to keep air borders open during the pandemic helped the sector to recover quickly (in which the union of the private sector was crucial) and, although there is a certain calm, it is not time to throw the bells on the fly and efforts must be redoubled.

He also commented that, from his point of view, it is not necessary to create a new airline operated by the Armed Forces.

During the video presentation of the latest edition of the Panorama of Tourist Activity in Mexico, a study carried out by CNET, in conjunction with the Center for Tourism Research and Competitiveness (CICOTUR), he commented on the need to address the complications faced by the promotion platform VisitMéxico, which has lost visits and content.

On the recovery in various tourism indicators, such as foreign exchange earnings and the increase in tourism GDP shown at the meeting, the business representative said: We recognize the progress and we also recognize certain policies that were implemented, which in principle we saw as very complicated. I mean not having closed the country (limiting flights). In the end, we believe that it was one of the important points to be able to have the results.

Despite the advances, he mentioned that there are red flags that could affect the coming months, including the complicated economy of the United States, the Russia-Ukraine war, and inflation.

“There is a joy or a measured enthusiasm because in the end the contraction due to the Covid-19 pandemic was strong, but we must continue working for the industry,” Arsuaga pointed out.

VisitMexico and the airline

In the meeting with the media, among the various topics related to tourism addressed were the creation of a military airline, focused on regional flights, and the VisitMéxico platform.

In the first case, he considered that at this time it is not necessary to develop a new airline, among other things because the health crisis caused Mexico to lose about 25% of its fleet.

“I don’t think it’s the solution (the new company), I think the solution lies more on the private initiative side (increasing connectivity) and not having an airline managed by the Army… It’s not a good idea and I have my doubts.” I doubt that this can happen,” he mentioned.

Regarding the platform for national and international tourism promotion, which was in charge of the Braintivity company, and now in power of the Ministry of Tourism, as its head, Miguel Torruco, explained last week, highlighted its relevance as a factor for the decision of travel decisions.

“It was recently published that the traffic on the page is 85% lower and that there are 3,000 broken urls on the page. For us that is a very strong impact. The page is abandoned and was, or is, an important window for any international tourist to plan their vacations. We believe that it is an issue that must be addressed in a timely manner and there should be consequences because 85% of the page’s traffic has been lost,” said the businessman.

alejandro.delarosa@eleconomista.mx