Mexico Tours and Activities Operators Feel the Pain of Tourism Board Demise
Skift Take
Cuts to the Mexico Tourism Board are having an immediate impact on local operators in some of the country's most popular tourist destinations. A lack of marketing resources is especially difficult for some of the country’s smallest and often most alluring places.
Manuel Rodriguez was born in Tulum and spent the latter half of his 50 years in the Caribbean paradise pioneering tours ranging from scuba diving adventures to trips to Mayan ruins as the destination mushroomed into a global phenomenon.
Now Rodriguez, owner of Tulum Diving and Travel, finds the boom has suddenly turned into a bust, largely because of drastic cuts to the Mexico Tourism Board, which shuttered all but four of its 21 international offices and slashed marketing budgets.
“This is the worst I’ve seen in 15 years,” Rodriguez said. “There is no plan or action on how to promote all of the different things. They are doing absolutely nothing.”
The decision to decimate the Mexico Tourism Board, which is a key provider of marketing support, training, and tourism promotion, was announced in early 2019 by the new presidential administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to divert
