Visit California’s Mission returns to promote Mexico, a country that represents its main market and that in 2021 received 3.7 million Mexican visitors with an expenditure of 1.5 billion dollars.
Caroline Beteta, CEO of Visit California endorsed the importance of attracting international travelers to the destination, which is ready for reactivation with either business or pleasure tourism.
He mentioned that in 2019 California obtained a spill of 44 billion dollars that fell with the pandemic, but they hope to recover that figure in 2024 and for this, they trust that Mexican tourism is their ally.
Traveler spending in California is important to the state’s economy, in 2019 it was 28 billion dollars, of which 18% was from international tourism.
Of this figure, 77% of foreign tourist spending is distributed in four California cities: San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Anaheim.
Beteta highlighted that the preferences of the Mexican leisure traveler are focused on:
- Beaches 46%
- Relaxation places 28%
- City tours 23%
- Culture and history 19%
- Sports activities 15%
- Multi-destination 15%
- Purchases 13%
- Lakes and mountains 12%
- Theme parks 10%
- Spas 10%
There is strong air connectivity between California and Mexico, Volaris handles 6 destinations; Aeroméxico from 3 cities Mexico City (71 weekly flights), Guadalajara (28 weekly flights), and Tijuana (10 weekly flights); while Viva Aerobús connects to the golden state from Mexico City (7 weekly flights) and Guadalajara (12 weekly flights).
Caroline stressed that they have high expectations that Mexican tourism will recover in 2023. In 2019, 7.7 million tourists arrived, of these 585 thousand by air. Expenditure was 4.2 billion dollars, of the air costs were 886 million dollars.
The delegation that visited Mexico was made up of representatives from California cities, including: Santa Barbara, Oakland, Monterey, San Diego, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Napa Valley, and Santa Monica.
Source: nitu.mx
