4/5/2017
By Ivan Pereira
New York’s tourism officials want to remind Mexican visitors that the city is still welcoming despite President Donald Trump’s travel bans and tougher immigration policies.
NYC & Company, the city’s tourism wing, renewed its partnership with its Mexico City counterpart Wednesday and announced a plan to promote travel to both of their locations. Fred Dixon, NYC & Company’s CEO, said it was important to keep their relationship strong, especially since trends have shown fewer Canadians, Mexicans and Europeans will be traveling here in the months to come.
“It was an important moment with everything going on in the world to let them know that we value their businesses and we still welcome Mexicans to New York City,” he said.
Both travel entities will collaborate on marketing campaigns that will attract tourists to their locations. Ads will be on display in Mexico starting April 25 with the message “New York City — Le da la bienvenida al mundo” or “New York City — welcoming the world.”
Special promotional travel discounts will also be offered to Mexican visitors between May 1 to July 31. In New York, special ads for travel to Mexico City will play on LinkNYC kiosks and bus shelters.
Last year, 449,000 Mexicans traveled to New York, according to Dixon. In February, NYC & Company estimated that the city will lose 300,000 visitors this year because of Trump’s policies and rhetoric, and Dixon said airline bookings to the city are already showing declines for the spring season.
He said his group would be working with other cities for similar partnerships in the coming months.
“We’re going systematically market by market depending on vulnerabilities,” he said.
