Tourism Ministry launches program to accredit community-based experiences in 8 states

Starting successful September, Mexico’s Tourism Ministry (Sectur) volition instrumentality a caller accreditation strategy that volition certify tourer work providers who connection “community tourism” — that is, tourism experiences that payment the section assemblage and bespeak its existent culture.

Sectur, which made the announcement past Thursday, aims to place assemblage tourism experiences eligible for certification nether its National Community Tourism Program. It’s the  archetypal certification thrust since 2017, and the archetypal nether a Morena-led government. 

Sebastián Ramírez Mendoza, caput of the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur), presented the certification programme astatine a caller greeting property league by President Claudia Sheinbaum. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

Certificates volition beryllium reserved for “individuals, groups oregon communities that connection assemblage tourism products and services with a absorption connected sustainability and continuous prime improvement,” Sebastián Ramírez Mendoza, caput of the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur), said during Thursday’s regular statesmanlike property conference. 

Ramírez said the programme is portion of the National Tourism Quality System. He stressed that qualified section groups volition beryllium the ones to determine however their activities look, however large circuit visitant groups are and different rules and specifications for tourism successful their communities. 

“The certificate volition warrant authenticity, that is, that determination is nary taste appropriation, that nary 1 pretends to beryllium a nationalist servant,” Ramírez said. “Therefore, we tin archer travelers that erstwhile they spot this certificate, it means they person recovered a genuinely community-based experience.” 

By the August 8 deadline, 1,385 communities, cooperatives and work providers had registered their assemblage tourism projects successful hopes of being included successful the 2025 National Guide to Community Tourism Experiences. Eight states were selected to enactment successful the archetypal phase: Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala. The archetypal 8 Community Experience Guides (ETC) purpose to supply lasting economical and societal benefits to communities, arsenic good arsenic enactment tourism. 

Community activities are assessed utilizing a diagnostic instrumentality with 120 questions, with supporting grounds required. Following assessment, certificates volition beryllium distributed to groups designated arsenic Community Tourism Providers, aft which they volition beryllium included successful the 2025 National Guide.

Sectur, successful conjunction with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), plans to enactment assemblage tourism providers by offering integer technology, grooming and nonrecreational improvement programs, among different tools. 

“What we privation to bash with this is marque it easier for assemblage tourism projects to entree markets, platforms, question agencies,” Ramírez said. 

With reports from Revista Contralínea, El Economista and infobae