Despite warnings from the US and Canadian governments to their citizens about travelling to Mexico due to violence in certain localities, the number of visitors flying into Mexico from both countries registered an increase in the first four months of this year, according to Mexico’s toursim minister, Gloria Guevara.

In the case of the United States, the recent figures showed a 6.1% increase in air travel from our northern neighbor, whilst visitors flying into the country from Canada registered an increase of 9.2% during the same period, compared with 2009.

This is good news for Mexico, especially when you consider Gloria Guevara highlighted the fact that with regard to international travellers visiting Mexico, 85% of them are US and Canadian visitors.

The aforementioned fact is the main reason why the latest tourism promotion being carried out by Mexico is to convince the northern neighbors to visit more than just Mexico’s beaches, by providing information on other options such as the archeaological sites, of which there are around 30,000 in the country.

The hope with this latest promotional campaign is to increase this years tourist numbers to the levels of 2008, after a bad year last year, when the number of registered foreign visits dropped from the 2009 figure of 22.6 million to 21.4 million.

So far this year, Mexico’s Federal Government has channelled 704 million pesos into market studies and promotional campaigns aimed at US and Canadian visitors, which according to the country’s Tourism Minister, Gloria Guevara, represents 44% of this year’s budget for tourism promotion.

The money for this type of promotion work in Mexico, as in most other countries, comes from the taxes paid by international travellers and so the more the foreign visits increase, the more money there will be for further promotion.

The latest tourism promotion work has been aimed at the North American visitor as they represent around 85% of foreign visits to Mexico. However, the plan for the future is to choose a total of 8 countries where tourism promotion will be focussed.

Overall, this year’s budget -1.6 billion pesos- is divided amongst several projects which include public relations work for the Mexican Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM), advertising on the Internet and other media for both the national and international markets, as well as participation in international tourism fairs, amongst other activities.

So far, commercials have been made for the Riviera Maya, which attracts the largest number of international tourists to the country; localities on Mexico’s Pacific Coast and, of course, the capital Mexico City, as well as the cultural cities of San Luis Potosí and Guanajuato.

In a recent press conference, Gloria Guevara said the aim is to increase Mexico’s tourism income over the next six to seven years so as to place the country in the top five of the world’s most successful tourism destinations.