International arrivals and the Mexican market

Numbers for international arrivals for January 2007 are out and again a dissappointing showing by our American friends. US inbound travel was down 5.7% compared to '06. Also of note is the fact that overseas travel to Canada was down also at 7.6% overall. However, China was still up from 2006 at 11.6% as were my two favourite inbound markets Mexico and Spain. Mexico was up 14.4% from last year, not a bad showing, but not great either for my liking. I will remind you that in January '06, Mexico was up 37.2% from '05, and that's more like it. I keep insisting that there is enough potential in Mexico to generate 750,000 visitors by 2012 (half a million by 2010). To achieve this objective the market needs to grow at 25% per annum.

Spain. Olé España. I remember in 1999 talking to many industry leaders about the potential of the Mexican market for Canada. At that time it was like speaking in esperanto. Very few people understood me or were interested. What a difference a few years make. Now Mexico is on everybody's radar (ok, maybe not everybody's). But in recent times, I have been talking to people about Spain, a developed country of over 40 million people with a standard of living very similar to Canada's. The absolute numbers are small, but Spanish inbound tourism growth is exponential. This January this market grew by 30.2%. Overall, Spaniards are discovering Canada more and more with little or no marketing from DMO's. Inbound Spanish tourism grew by 11.5% in '06 (about 57,000 visitors) over '05.

For the small DMO or tourism business the question is: How can we attract visitors from those growing markets in a cost effective manner? The answer? Two words: The Internet. As in other markets, (other than word of mouth) travelers are going to the Web to research destinations (and more and more to book if they can). One important thing to remember though is the #1 principle of marketing: "know your customer." While Mexicans and Spaniards have many things in common (language being the most obvious) their travel tastes are very different. Their cultures overlap in many respects but are still quite different cultures, especially when it comes to travel to Canada.

Hasta la proxima,

Jaime