Cesar Mendoza, Director, Mexico Tourism Board - Western Canada with Anna Camarena Sahagun of Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo
Tammy Mosher Cecco, Travel Life with Sunwing's Anna Tarkowski
A pair of Monicas! Monica Garcia with the Mexico Tourism Board & Monica Maldonado of the romantic Capella Ixtapa
Ixtapa's lovely sweep of beach
Just as we Canadians are eyeing the mittens and thinking about winter tires, a team from sunny western Mexico lands in Toronto to remind us that they enjoy 360 days of sunshine a year. Oh, cruel world!
And lucky them. Not only do they enjoy way more sunshine than we do, the resorts of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulco continue to deliver tremendous value and choice for Canadians. Not hard to see why Canadian numbers are up an impressive 12% year-over-year.
“Mexico combines all the elements,” Rodrigo Esponda, who heads the Mexican Tourist Board here in Canada told a group of tour operators, agents and media at a recent event at Mexican-flavoured resto Olé-Olé in downtown Toronto. “Archaeology, food, theatre, silver, 33 UNESCO sites… we are a great choice for travellers who agree that a vacation is a source of personal enrichment.”
Modern Ixtapa and its neighbouring resort old-fashioned Zihuatanejo offer a great range for the active client including surfing, fishing biking along a long new nature path, 2 golf courses and, for the wee ones (or perhaps non-golfers!) mini-putt, or golfito as the locals call it.
Acapulco continues to be the darling of the long-stay crowd, with some Canadians returning over 30 years to winter in the sun. “And now their children are coming back too,” Piquis Rochin of the ACA marketing office told us. “When I go to the Acapulco Philharmonic concerts, which take place every 2nd Friday, 90% of the audience is Canadian!” She is equally enthusiastic about a new light rail service called the Acabus which will ply the resort city’s legendary main boulevard, the Costera Miguel Aleman.
With numbers up, lift increasing (90% of Canadians fly direct) and product expanding, it’s no wonder Mexicans love us. And, they also confess that what they’d really love now is a nice, hefty dose of snow blanketing Vancouver to Halifax.
