A delegation of tourism officials from Mexico recently returned from a tour of several US cities including LA, Seattle, Atlanta, Houston, New York, and Washington DC, where the delegates met with hundreds of travel agents from across the United States. The delegation, headed by Secretary of Tourism Gloria Guevara, are pleased to report that for most of the agents, the safety of Mexico was old news.
Instead, Travel Weekly reports, travel agents were interested in “[Mexico’s] upcoming events, promotions and winter season offerings.” COO of the Mexico Tourism Board, Rodolfo Lopez Negrete, remarked, “We are starting to turn the corner. The crime topic is old news now, and agents were eager to hear our tourism updates.”
Travel agents have a lot to be excited for in terms of upcoming events in Mexico. Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta are set to host the 2011 Pan American Games from Oct. 14th to the 30th, where more than 6,000 athletes from 42 countries (including 275 from the U.S) will face off in international competition.
Overlapping the Pan Am. Games is the Adventure Travel World Summit, which will be held in Chiapas, Mexico Oct. 17th to the 20th. 2011 marks the eighth annual Adventure Travel World Summit – an important event in the travel industry held in a different country each year. Mexico is proud to have been chosen as this year’s host and is eager, as a country, to show off the endless amount of world-class adventure experiences to be found throughout the nation.
As 2011 draws to an end, Mexico will launch a year long celebration of the Mayan culture with a focus on Dec. 21st of 2012, when the Mayan calendar is believed to end. Special events are scheduled in the southern states of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Yucatan, and travel companies like Journey Mexico are offering trips like The Archeological Mayan Journey – a ten day excursion which takes travelers to the most renowned cultural and archeological sites of the Yucatan Peninsula in the company of one of the region’s most well-respected guides.
When it comes to travel, especially internationally, safety always comes first. Mexico enthusiasts are happy to see that US travelers and travel agents are beginning to once again understand that Mexico has traveler-safety covered.
