Mexico expects 140k Russians this year
.jpg)
This week Mexican Embassy in Russia hosted a cocktail party “Masters of Food & Wine” in Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow hotel; at the party, guests were able to taste national Mexican food, drink tequila and listen to Mexican guitar songs.
Mexico’s ambassador Ruben Beltran delivered a big part of his opening speech in Russian. He said that this year Mexico expected 140 thousand Russians, and last year the country was visited by 107 thousand Russians. Compared to 2012, the growth was 40% (according to the statistics of Mexican migratory services and of the airlines that organize flights to this country).
According to the ambassador, the Russian tourist flow is growing very quickly: four years ago only 5 thousand Russians were visiting Mexico. He distinguished the project “Magical village” among the new endeavors of the Mexican Tourism Office. These villages include settlements that can offer tourists something unique, for instance, architectural monuments, crafts, and interesting traditions. There are already 80 of such villages in Mexico.
First Deputy CEO of Transaero Tour Tatyana Pleshakova, who also attended the event, told the TRN correspondent that her company’s sales to Mexico for the past months of the year were more or less comparable to the corresponding last year’s results. However, Russian airlines saw a decline in air tourists. Last year the company’s flight frequency to Cancun was 2 flights a week, now it is 1 flight each 10 days, and starting August 1, the frequency will drop to 2 flights per 10 days. Aeroflot has cancelled its summer flights.
According to Pleshakova, the company organizes Transaero flights to Cancun. The operator normally books blocks of more than 50% seats, while the rest of the seats are divided between Natalie Tours and South Cross. These three operators are the main source of Russian tourist from Moscow to Mexico. As for the Russian regions, the main market players as regards the Mexican destinations are Pegas Touristik and Coral Travel.
Head of North and South America Directorate Alexandr Redzhebov believes it to be hardly possible to count on a significant increase of the general tourist flow to Mexico, considering the drop in flights and an economic decline in Russia.
“But we still hope for at least a slight growth,” he said.
Anna Podgornaya, CEO of Pegas Touristik, told the TRN correspondent that Mexico enjoys good demand among Russians, and that for the last few years there has been a gradual increase in the tourist flow.
“I expect the tourist flow performance this year to be better,” she says.
According to the CEO of Pegas, for the transportation of tourists to Cancun the operator books a “Nord Wind” charter plane, which now flies 2 times a week. Coral Travel also has blocks of seats booked for this destination. During summer there are no flights from regions to Cancun.
According to Russiatourism, last year Mexico was visited by 81 thousand Russians, 54 thousand of whom were tourists. This year’s Q1 results were as follows: 25 thousand and 16 thousand.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)