“The power of digitization, its undoubted influence in the different fields of life today, and its growing expansion, make up a fundamental and basic whole for the growth, operation and success of tourism companies,” said Secretary of Tourism Miguel Torruco Marqués, during the launch of the strategy.
The strategy is part of a comprehensive framework of solutions with four axes: data and research; creative solutions; educational solutions and product solutions.
The potential to digitize the Mexican tourism sector is high. According to a study carried out this year by Oxford Tourism Economics, by 2025 142,000 new jobs could be created, both direct, indirect and induced, and there would be an increase in tourism spillover of 13.1 billion dollars during the next five years .
“Web searches reflect great intentions to travel, to vacation for Internet users in Mexico and the world,” said Lina Ornelas, head of government affairs and public policies at Google for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
“In 2019, 85% of tourists in Mexico made purchases on-line, and 79% of the lodging nights were booked through digital platforms. In addition, digital content drove a 6% increase in the tourism economy from 2014 to 2019, ”he said.
For this reason, collaborations will be made so that from Waze, for example, experiences within the Magic Towns can be visualized, while the community of local Google guides will facilitate that tourism SMEs appear on the maps of a community.
Added to this is the creation of projects such as Google Arts & Culture: Sabores de México, focused on national gastronomy, in addition to the digitization of Pueblos Mágicos, which will incorporate courses and webinars free for tour-operators and micro-entrepreneurs to update and specialize.