Mexican inbound tourism to Canada continues to grow at a consistent 15% rate

Statistics Canada published its service bulletin International Travel: Advance Information for May 2008 today. While the news about US visits continues to be dismal with a further 10% decline for the month compared to May 2007, Mexico continues to grow at a 15% rate. 21,658 Mexican visitors came to Canada in May 2008 compared to 18,840 for the same period last year. Total numbers from Jan to May: 86,238.

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Spain remained flat for the month, but South America, excluding Brazil grew 7.2% for the month. and is up 8% for the period from Jan to May.

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Given the global credit crunch and the fuel debacle among airlines it is all the more remarkable that the Mexican inbound market continues to grow at this clip. In my opinion, it is confirmation that there continues to be pent-up demand in Mexico for travel to Canada. The success of the Canadamigos Social Network to date (over 5,000 visits per months and reaching 1,700 active members since December '07) and continuing growth in traffic for the Canadá en Español websites (over 200,000 monthly visits) leads me to reassert my belief that with the right marketing mix going forward Mexican inbound tourism to Canada could reach 350,000 visitors by the end of 2010. Furthermore, once Canada begins to market itself in Spain we could see a dramatic increase of Spanish visitors to this country.

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Saludos,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

www.cactusrock.com