Mexico’s slogan “Mexico, The Place You Thought You Knew” is now more appropriate than ever, as industry professionals are challenging the negative misconceptions and shining light to the positive Mexico.

Mexico, The Place You Thought You Knew

After Mexico’s first big hit to tourism in 2009 due to Swine Flu reports, Mexico knew it had to quickly take action to recover a decline in tourists. Releasing a welcome back video and being commended by president Obama for how the well the crisis was handled, Mexico started seeing a recuperation of their numbers in early 2010 and it looked like Mexico had weathered the storm.  Shortly after Gloria Guevara took place as the new Secretary of Tourism, The Mexico Tourism Board  launched a new campaign and initiative,  “Mexico, The Place You Thought You Knew”. These were a set of advertisements to arouse the curiosity of tourists by showcasing not only beach destinations,  but also the natural wonders, modern aspects and cultural hertiage that some people may have never tought exitsted in Mexico. With this they also revealed “the Routes of Mexico” which were 10 touristic  routes that connected the 31 states and Mexico City.  However, right around this time also began the slew of media reports about increased drug-related violence in Mexico. The reports started again negatively impacting tourists decisions to visit Mexico, painting mexico with one large brush instead pinpointing the trouble (border) areas. This came as a bad time, as the campaign was aimed at convincing tourist to venture beyond the beaches. The new initiaves that The Mexico Tourism Board put forth were starting to receive criticism. [Read more…]