Durango: Mexico’s best kept secret is revealed at FITUR Madrid 2020

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Elvira Silerio Díaz, Undersecretary of Tourism Promotion of Durango, talked about the huge potential of her state in terms of Tourism about the tourist commitment of that Mexican region.

Durango is developing 4 different tourism trends:

Cultural tourism for all our heritage wealth and also because this year we celebrated 10 years of Durango’s appointment as part of the Royal Land Road In a bi-national itinerary that is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. We have more than 400 sites endorsed by the INA and we have a lot of history, museums, gastronomy. So the issue of cultural tourism for us is very important.

Another aspect is adventure tourism. Durango because of its geography is located near the Sierra Madre Occidental and we connect with the state of Sinaloa that has coast. Thanks to that we can make interesting itineraries for the people who visit us, where they can combine culture and gastronomy of our capital city with the richness of our Magical Towns, because there is one located just half an hour from the capital. We have the traditional mezcal, a drink similar to tequila but more tasty.

After this experience the visitor can go to the Sierra Madre Occidental where there are more than 200 cabins, two hotels and the possibility of doing all kinds of activities such as hiking, zip lines and via ferrata. There is a lot to see on this site and the visitor will also be in touch with nature. The tour can end in the neighboring state of Sinaloa with about three days off on the beach.

In the Sierra Madre there are cabins for all tastes and for all budgets. You can open the cabin door and find a white-tailed deer or spot birds thanks to the different microclimates across the state.

Another tourist possibility that Durango offers is cinema. Our state is known as the Hollywood of Mexico. More than 200 films have been filmed in our state, and movie stars such as Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Andy Garcia, John Candy and even super stars like John Wayne, along with many other internationally recognized artists have practically lived there while recording a movie production.

A very important segment for Durango is the groups and conventions segment. In March we will host a congress on Sustainability and Environment, where more than six governors of the United States will be present, all the governors of the country and actor Leonardo Di Caprio will also be present during a “climate change and sustainable energy conference”.

Last year we were able to host more than 200 events, which represents more than one per week, where people really fall in love with Durango.

We want all the world to see our infrastructure, our connectivity and the quality of the services they always return.

Therefore developing this segment has become a very positive strategy.

What is Durango promoting at FITUR 2020?

We have been promoting the four segments previously mentioned. We are here accompanied by the State Association of Hotels and Motels. In 2019, the tourism closter was created, so we gathered tour operators, transporters, academics, hotels, cabins, etc. which has also allowed us to work closely with private initiative.

Now at FITUR 2020 we bring the offer of our Magical Towns and we come mainly to create alliances and strategies to promote Durango. Our secretary met with a delegation from India (Bollywood Mecca), to precisely assess the possibilities of making films in Durango.

What is the most powerful issuing market for Durango?

The United States is the main issuer of tourism for most of Mexico. On the other hand in the European market, Spain is the second largest issuer for Durango while Britain is number one. Despite the language barrier, the English visit the country a lot and especially our state because of the nature issue. They are especially interested in bird watching. That leads us to further segment the tourist activity for those niches that require a specific promotion according to the interests of our visitors.

How does the demographics of Durango visitors behave?

We are betting on all age ranges. The profile of our visitors ranges from family tourism, small children included, to a very large segment of older adults, retirees and pensioners mainly from Canada.

The Mazatlan Post with information from https://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com