Mexican Government to Provide More Support for Tourism
03 Dec 2008
by: Press Release: Presidency of the Republic, November 27,
Presidency of the Republic
At
the close of the 8th International Tourism Congress, Mexican President
Felipe Calderón declared that given the current worldwide economic
downturn, tourism must become one of the key engines for maintaining
the country's economic growth.
The
President told an audience of businesspersons in the tourist industry
that nowadays it is crucial to boost links between government, the
business sector and citizens, in order to consolidate Mexico as one of
the world's main tourist destinations.
The
President declared that his government will provide more support for
strategic sectors of the economy, particularly tourism. An example of
this, he said, is that for 2009 the budget for this sector totals more
than $4.3 billion pesos, 30% over this year's record budget.
He
stated that there are three factors that will play a key role in
Mexican tourism next year: The first is that many Mexican tourist
resorts may replace more expensive world destinations which may be
eschewed due to the difficult economic situation.
The
second is Mexico’s favorable exchange rate, which will make several
tourist destinations in Mexico cheaper for foreign tourists.
The third is the significant
reduction in transportation costs, which had constituted a bottleneck for domestic tourism.
“Beyond
the turbulence, what we need to do is to keep the country on course and
have a clear view of the future, which will enable us to pull through.
And that is exactly what the federal government is doing, which is what
I would urge the private sector, and other organizations and levels of
government in Mexico, to do over the coming months," he declared.
The
president stated that the federal government will not rest, and that it
will do everything in its power to prevent the effects of a worldwide
economic downturn, which on this occasion was not caused by developing
countries, from having an impact on and reducing Mexicans' quality of
life.
He
ended by saying that government will continuously monitor the
development of economic indicators and implement the necessary
contra-cyclical policy measures to boost economic activity, and that it
will act in a timely, decisive fashion to undertake actions to benefit
Mexico's productive sector.
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