HomeMy WebLinkAbout08. Memo.MexicoMarketOutreach
March 12, 2021
TO: Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council
FROM: Kristin Yantis & Amanda McNally, MYPR
RE: Summer Promotion to Mexican Market
CC: Jennifer Viditz Ward, Sylvia Rivera
As destination markets slowly reopen, the VLMD partner team is keeping a close eye of
opportunities to invest once again in driving business from Mexico this summer. On March 9,
the US Embassy announced that it will temporarily limit inbound land border crossings from
Mexico for “essential travel.” Tourism is not considered essential travel. Although we currently
have many visitors from Mexico in Vail, we believe it would be inappropriate to actively market
e.g. media visits/buys until restrictions are lifted.
In the meantime, we’ve asked our Mexico experts Sylvia Rivera and Jennifer Viditz Ward to
provide us with some market conditions, insights and opportunities.
• Forecast from SECTUR (The Mexican government Travel Department) assures 80% of
travelers are comfortable to book and stay at hotels both nationally and internationally.
• 80% of the upscale Mexican market is favoring destinations that offer outdoor recreation.
Top boutique travel agencies in Mexico (ITG, Virtuoso, NUBA) have reported to be
selling trips to upscale and outdoor destination that have open borders to Mexicans such
as Turkey, Dubai, Columbia and Costa Rica. Many who usually travel to Europe in the
summer are looking to top destinations in the US as their borders remain closed.
• According to the Mexico Focus Forum, which shares and explores travel trends across
many industry partners e.g. airlines, US and Mexico reps, hotels, etc., noted that Mexico
is the No. 2 international destination to the US. It’s forecasted that 18.5 million Mexican
tourists will visit the US during 2021.
• High net worth individuals continue to travel as much as they did prior to the pandemic
as they have maintained the financial wherewithal to do so. They tend to return to places
they are familiar with e.g. Vail versus experimenting with new destinations right now.
• Last year many trips fell apart, cancellations were more recurrent while lockdown
persisted in many countries and travel policies were extremely strict. An IHG Hotels &
Resorts survey illustrated that 60% of Mexicans cancelled between 1 to 4 trips last year,
but the figures are encouraging, since just over 50% of them are willing to reschedule or
are ready to travel in 2021. In addition, 1 in 4 travelers stated that their next trip is related
to a family adventure as part of their plans.
• A large percentage of the Vail target market is being vaccinated in Mexico or they’ve
traveled to international destination to get the vaccine.
Our Mexican visitors are in Vail this winter and plan to visit this summer. Some current booking
trends that Jennifer Viditz Ward provided include:
• Increase in long-term stays this winter with bookings two weeks or more through travel
partners.
• Wholesale summer business has started to book.
• Increase in direct client bookings through third-party travel providers due to the
pandemic e.g. ease in making changes to travel plans, managing cancelation/rebooking
fees, etc. Travel partners reporting an increase in purchase of travel insurance.
• Clients are traveling to US to get vaccinated as part of their ski/leisure trip.
• Golf destination bookings are starting to pick up.
The VLMD partner group agrees that Mexico is a top market to start speaking to once travel
restrictions are lifted. We’ve allocated dollars in the supplemental plan under contingency to
accommodate for media relations and a media buy in Mexico that would be executed by Sylvia
and her team in partnership with MYPR. We are prepared to execute as soon as the border is
open to tourists.
We hope that there will be further shifts in border access between now and the April meeting.
We plan to give a more formal update at that time. Until then, please let us know if you have any
questions.
Thank you.