Turkish Airlines will launch flights from Istanbul to Mexico City and Cancun in August. The flights expect to increase tourist flow to Mexico not only from Turkey but from Europe, Middle East and Africa since the Turkish carrier flies more international destinations than any other carrier on earth.
Turkish Airlines is also popular due to its good services both in the economy and business class, also offers the most convenient connections to many travelers.
We talked with Mr. Enrique Monroy, Director of Promotion, Yucatán Ministry of Tourism about the tourism industry in the Mexican state.
- Could you please present Yucatan State for tourists that never travel here before?
The State of Yucatán is the heart of the southern region of Mexico and located in the center of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Mérida is the capital of Yucatán and the most important tourist center of the region. With its colonial architecture, a wide cultural offer, authentic gastronomy and the historical, natural and archaeological wealth in the area, Merida is the gateway of the Mayan world. Currently, Yucatán has 16 archaeological sites (including Chichén Itzá with the Kukulkán Pyramid as one of the 7 new wonders of the world and Uxmal, both UNESCO World Heritage) Yucatán also has beautiful beaches full of flamingos, colonial cities, magical towns, unique gastronomy, culture, architecture, majestic haciendas, sacred cenotes, hotels and multi award-winning restaurants.
- What are Yucatan’s offerings in cultural, medical, cruise, and meetings industries?
Yucatan has a wide cultural offer as colonial cities, Izamal and Valladolid are considered “Magical Towns” due to their natural beauty, cultural richness, traditions, folklore, historical relevance, cuisine, arts & crafts, and hospitality. Merida, the capital of the state, hosts the renown Palace of Music, which houses the country’s musical history museum. Mérida is full of art galleries and public squares, such as the Santa Lucía park where you can appreciate traditional Yucatecan music such as the “Serenatas yucatecas”. Among the monuments with more interest are the “Monument to the Fatherland” (1956), the Government Palace (1892) and the Cathedral of San Ildefonso (1598 and the first in America) 8 museums, 9 theaters and 10 parks.
Also, the offer in terms of medical tourism in Merida has grown considerably, with specialties hospitals considered at the forefront of medical innovation in southeast Mexico.
As for the MICE industry, Yucatán has a wide variety of hotel chains and luxury haciendas with large spaces for meeting and convention. In Merida, there are two large venues, the Convention and Exhibition Center Yucatan Siglo XXI, which has eight large meeting rooms and a cinema; In 2018, the new International Convention Center (CIC) was inaugurated in the center of the city, a few steps from the most important avenue, Paseo de Montejo. It is the only center of its kind that has a natural cenote in its facilities, with a hotel offer of more than 2,000 rooms within a radius of 600 meters.
It is integrated to the corridor of the Historical Center of the City that offers a wide program of cultural and artistic activities 365 days a year, as well as restaurants, bars, museums and places of historic interest.
Yucatan has the fourth most important industrial port in Mexico, Puerto Progreso. It also receives tourist cruises from different companies. Last year, Yucatan participated in the Florida and Caribbean Cruise Association Fair (FCCA) ) in Puerto Rico, where they held meetings with CEOS and senior managers of the Carnival Cruises, MSC and Royal Caribbean companies, to work with the tourism board to improve the Port of Progreso areas, resulting in a greater volume of visitors, and an increase the wealth in Yucatan.
- What is the importance of Tianguis Turístico México for Yucatan? Will Yucatan host the 2020 event?
Because this event is the most important showcase in Mexico and allows us to show Yucatan in the eyes of the world tourism industry. The TT2020 will benefit us in 3 specific ways:
- First of all, the TT2020 will allow us to showcase Yucatan’s infrastructure in terms of large scale events such as Tianguis Turistico or the upcoming World Summit of Nobel Peace Laurates.
- The wealth that naturally an event of this magnitude brings to the destination; with people traveling, spending and consume in restaurant and hotels.
- The most important benefit is that we receive tourism leaders, entrepreneurs, buyers, travel agencies, tour operators and international media… This will continue benefiting Yucatán after this event. We trust these visitors will certainly draw tourists, investment and new projects to Yucatan.
- Will the closure of the Mexico Tourism Board’s global offices affect Yucatan’s promotions?
We are working in coordination with the private industry to improve the tourist offer of Yucatan, optimizing the budget for the promotion of the destination abroad and to have the presence of Yucatan in international fairs and trade shows; Recently, like FITUR (Spain) last January, the International Tourism Fair (ITB) of Berlin and ANATO in Colombia, where we obtained excellent results in business meetings and we approached buyers, travel agencies, associations and media that undoubtedly help us keep Yucatán very visible.
- Our last question is about the environment. How the travel industry in Yucatan is cutting down on single-use plastics, and can you tell us about other eco-friendly practices in the state? Currently, we are working to disseminate information, train and engage citizens to adopt a sustainable culture, in order to conserve our environment and their own natural resources, as well as to achieve their Sustainable use. Environmental education is considered as a continuous and synergistic work, learning and teaching to live consciously and congruent with Our environment. An example is the Center for Scientific Research of Yucatan (CIT), which organizes activities with students of the Universities in Yucatan for the recycling of plastics, they are taught materials and products that can be obtained, in addition to making a simple demonstration of two ways of the process of plastic recycling and compression molding.
Today citizens and visitors are beginning to take seriously the tremendous impact of plastic waste on our beaches and that is why more and more people are joining to help clean them. This also includes a form of family life and teaching our children to care for the ecosystem.
