Mexican Tourism Board Announced Plans for Direct Flight between China and Mexico [2]
Tourism officials announced that a direct flight between China and Mexico will exist before the end of the year. With both China and Mexico being among the top 10 tourist destinations in the world, this new route will further increase tourism for both countries by introducing another form of transportation and it will improve Mexico and China relations.
According to an article by the Xinhua News Agency [3], Rodolfo Lopez Negrete [4], director of the Mexican Tourism Board, told the news organization that “opening a new direct route between Mexico City and Beijing is seen as one of the ministry’s top priorities, and they are discussing the issue with several international airlines.”
Lopez Negrete continued by saying:
China is one of the main priorities for Mexico. There are a number of opportunities that we are working on in order to improve the connectivity between Mexico and China, and we are sure that if we can get a direct flight between Mexico City and Beijing, we will see a major increase in the number of tourism arrivals.
Conversations between the Tourism Promotion Council and the Mexican embassies and consulates [5] in China have occurred in order to expedite “the processing of tourist and business visas for Chinese nationals.” The goal is to have the processing time for visas to be around 72 hours, a time many of the Mexican embassies and consulates are now meeting.
China’s Hainan Airlines [6], Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific [7] and Mexico’s Aeromexico [8] have all been discussing the creation of a direct flight. Currently, Aeromexico has a very popular direct flight to Shanghai that stops in Tijuana, Mexico. Lopez Negrete informed Xinhua News Agency [9] that Mexico, hoping to enhance Mexico and China relations, has already set aside money in its budget for tourism promotion in China
According to statistics, Chinese tourists have become much more interested in visiting Mexico. Lopez Negrete said the number has nearly doubled in the past two years, going from 16,000 tourists in 2009 to 30,000 tourists in 2011. He is hopeful that this incline will continue and stated that Mexico’s goal is to reach 100,000 Chinese tourists in the coming years.
The Mexican Tourism Board is also considering establishing flights between Mexico and Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific expressed interest in this idea and proposed creating a flight between the two countries via San Francisco or Los Angeles.