Reportur.mx interview with Estrella Palacios Domínguez, Secretary of Tourism
With more air connections and an important tourism promotion program in Mexico, the United States
United States and Canada, Sinaloa is experiencing an important moment, says Estrella Palacios Domínguez, Secretary of Tourism of Sinaloa, to REPORTUR.mx.
How much is Sinaloa growing in tourism?
We are living a great moment in Sinaloa, as we are currently increasing our hotel offer; In the city of Mazatlán alone, 14 new hotels are under construction, representing around 2,000 rooms. In addition, in the entity we also increased our air offer: we have 12 new routes, so connectivity has improved. Regarding the issue of cruises, for example, this year in Sinaloa we expect 145 arrivals in total.
What can you refer to in terms of outstanding tourist products in the state?
We will have an international event that is the convention of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association
(FCCA), where the best executives of Naviera in Mazatlán will attend; this will happen from the 6th to the 10th of
November of this year. We have just opened the Mar de Cortés aquarium, also in Mazatlán, which is the largest in Latin America. Now the topic that concerns us is that of the Magical Towns, since we have just obtained the fifth destination that bears this emblem in the entity, which is San Ignacio, and we are very happy to belong to the Alianza Mar de Cortés, which is headed for our governors of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora.
The very precise instruction of our Governor, Dr. Rubén Rocha Moya, is to support and
promote the 18 municipalities that make up our state and that is what we are doing. He is also very interested in supporting rural tourism, as it is very important to empower the Magical Towns of Sinaloa, improving their tourist offer. We have several programs, one of them is called Discover Sinaloa, in which we offer 24 tourist routes that cover the 18 municipalities of the state at very affordable prices for Sinaloan families, from 599 pesos and with this they can have the experience of touring the state.
What would you like to highlight about the Saboreando Sinaloa promotional tour?
The Saboreando Sinaloa promotional tour travels the country making presentations of our great tourist poles in Mazatlán, Culiacán and Los Mochis, as well as our Magical Towns and we visit the places where we have air connectivity, especially where we have the new flights.
We recently were in Mexico City, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez and this month we are going to be in Monterrey. During the Saboreando Sinaloa tour we bring our folklore, banda music, the queens of the carnival accompany us, there is seafood, aguachiles, gastronomic samples and we are accompanied by members of all the hotel associations, the Secretary of Tourism, the municipalities and basically we show off all the benefits of Sinaloa. Additionally, we are doing promotional tours to the United States and Canada, since these markets are very important, especially for the city of Mazatlán, which is where we have international air connectivity.
What are the main challenges and obstacles to overcome to achieve a greater tourism boost?
The great challenge is for them to discover us, because once tourists arrive in our state they fall in love and always want to return, that is a reality; We have many natural, cultural, and historical attractions, and of course gastronomy, which is one of our strengths, but when people arrive, they experience it and always want to return. One of the advantages that we are going to have with the Mar de Cortés Alliance is to also create tourist packages in which the participating states integrate us and thus be able to have new market segments. For example, Baja California Sur has a different tourist profile than Mazatlán and Sinaloa, in general, but in our state the Chepe Express can offer European tourism, which is a tourist train that departs from Los Mochis and takes you to the Copper Canyon, in Chihuahua; It is a spectacular tourist experience that I recommend you visit and experience. This tourist train goes from Los Mochis to the Pueblo Mágico El Fuerte, in Sinaloa and later continues its route in Chihuahua; It is one of the examples of the projects we are working on and we have a great opportunity to put ourselves on the international map and participate together as a region.
What news about the work of the State Tourism Secretariat would you like to share?
We want to share that near the new Magical Town of Sinaloa, which is San Ignacio, there is a
archaeological zone called Las Labradas and we are working to make it a Heritage
of Humanity; We are already advanced and very optimistic that we will be able to achieve it soon and be able to
detonate that entire region as an ecotourism area in our state.
