Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Domestic tourism in Mexico

Our personal accounts of ecotourism are usually in the first person; that is, we talk about our own experiences of traveling to Mexico and other beautiful, far-flung tropical locales from another country. Not surprising to be coming from a group of Americans.

But international tourists are only part of the story. Just as the majority of tourists to be found at most attractions in the U.S. are, in fact, Americans, the tourism industries of Mexico and other Latin American countries also are dominated by domestic visitors.

In Mexico, 80 percent of total tourism expenditures (and 60 percent of the spending on lodging) come from Mexican residents, according to a 2001 OECD study. (In some places, of course, international visitors dominate.)

Why should we care? Well, in our minds ecotourism can only be sustainable if tourist activities maintain the integrity of the ecosystems where eco-resorts are found. And local residents are almost always the best stewards of that. Community-scale stewardship is the most critical, but all domestic visitors have a stake in stewarding the natural landscapes within their country's borders.

Since domestic tourists are, on average, probably less affluent than visitors from America and other (richer) countries, it's also important to have tourism options at all price points, not just the luxury experiences that often exclude the average middle-class tourist. On a related point, we should be sensitive to the potential for a lagging level of appreciation of environmental values among domestic tourists, stemming from simple things like education and even access to the internet.

Domestic tourism is in some ways a measure of the interest in and appreciation of a nation's environmental assets, and we're glad to see it's alive and well in Mexico. Strong domestic tourist flows will, we hope, provide the capital to maintain and restore ecologically important lands. We'll be watching for studies to confirm that domestic tourists are just as interested in eco-friendly travel as Americans are becoming.

No comments: