By Francisco Peyret
We have received the good news that the air connection between the city of Mérida, Yucatán, and the Bajío airport will be restored. We had an exclusive interview with Michelle Fridman, secretary of tourism for the state of Yucatán, on her visit to San Miguel de Allende.
Francisco Peyret (FP): What does the recognition that Condé Nast Traveler has just granted to the city of Mérida mean to you?
Michelle Fridman (MF): For us, it is very important. In 2019 we won the best city in the world in the “Best Small City” category, which San Miguel has also won on numerous occasions. But the same Condé Nast Traveler magazine editorial told us that we could no longer participate in this category. We had to compete on another level and face large cities like Tokyo. Now they have recognized us as the fourth best city in the world in the “Best Big Cities” category in the magazine’s 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards, and the only Mexican city in the top 5 list, which also includes Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Quebec City in Canada.
FP: How do you see yourselves; how do you promote yourself in the face of tourism as intensive as that of Quintana Roo?
MF: We have taken it as an opportunity from the beginning, i.e., four years ago when the current administration began. Quintana Roo has mass tourism and spring-breakers that are not consistent with Yucatan, but it also has complementary, exclusive tourism seeking gastronomic and cultural experiences and delving into history, as is the case with Guanajuato. We share many things with Quintana Roo such as connectivity, infrastructure, programs, and training. To give you an example, during the pandemic, the two states were the first to jointly launch a program of «good sanitary practices.» We have always understood that we are not competition but a great complement [to each other].
FP: How did you build your plan for the future, and how did the different social and economic sectors participate?
MF: We hold work meetings with international and national leaders and local specialists. Given that politics tend to be reinvented every six years, we proposed a 20-year Sustainable 30-60 Plan. To build this plan, the Tourism Office took advantage of the opportunity that many people came from abroad with a different vision, and we added specialists from home who have worked in the sector for many years.
FP: How has this plan impacted the generation of new tourism products?
MF: Yucatan has many tourist products. We have business tourism, medical, meetings, also rural nature tourism, nautical, cenotes, sun, and sea, in addition to hacienda and archaeological tourism. We have so many products that we had to seek a strategy that would allow us to decentralize and diversify within a framework of sustainability. Yucatán is more than Mérida and Chichén Itzá, where the efforts were concentrated. We currently have six tourist regions and 154 tourist products. We have 398 km of beautiful beaches. We do not have an immense hotel infrastructure, but we have places where you can see thousands of flamingos lying on the beach.
We have a very rich mosaic of options in 106 municipalities, where you can enjoy products combined with the coasts, haciendas, and archaeological zones during the day, but also at night with video mapping shows. The advantage of differentiating, diversifying, and decentralizing the tourist offer is that it reaches more destinations and more hands, in addition to being able to extend the stay of tourists in the state.
FP: How are you experiencing the phenomenon of foreigners moving to Mexico? Expats continue to move to San Miguel, but now people from other generations who are working from here are also coming, investing, and building families. I understand that you are experiencing a similar phenomenon.
MF: The same thing is happening to us. I think that Yucatán has many reasons to be chosen by tourists, new residents, and investors. In fact, last year Yucatán was the third national location in attracting tourist investment. They are betting on our state because we have a first-world social infrastructure (schools, hospitals, theaters), and complete land, sea, and air connectivity. But we also have security that is something invaluable. We are in first place nationally in security. Our security levels are compared to those of Sweden, for example, and Mérida is the second safest city in the continent, only behind Québec. One lesson that the pandemic taught us is that we can work from the place that we like the most. In that sense the digital nomads are an example. You can work from San Miguel, Mérida, or from wherever you like to be.
FP: Returning to the issue of connectivity, I also understand that you are betting on the issue of cruise ships, which for environmental reasons can be controversial. What is your position on this?
MF: Cruise ships generate an important income, and it is not something new, but I have always asked how to reinvent business models so that they are more sustainable. And that is where they all come in—the hotel industry as well as cruise ships. They are models that come from decades ago, and we have to find a way to involve people more. We are trying to project other types of tours with nautical companies.
In the case of the ports of arrival, only Chinese products were sold. Now we have managed to sell local handicrafts. The economic benefit generated by cruise ships is important, but once we improve the ports, boutique hotels, restaurants, and shops arrive, and another economy is being generated that is very important.
Connectivity is also very important issue for us. After the pandemic, we are recovering and expanding the frequency with the Bajío airport, because now Guanajuato is going to be less than two hours away from the Yucatecans and the Yucatecans from the Guanajuatenses.
FP: This is very important for us, because a lot of people live in this region, national and foreign, who are interested in coming directly to the Yucatan Peninsula.
MF: This route is very important for us because it brings us closer not only to Guanajuato, but also to Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, and Querétaro, which by the way, we are also going to recover this direct route to Querétaro. We are going to be closer to San Miguel from these two airports. These direct travel lines have allowed us to connect with Tijuana, Oaxaca, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Veracruz, in addition to the fact that we are recovering Guanajuato and Querétaro. It was always very uncomfortable having to go to CDMX to reach any destination.
FP: Without entering into the controversy of the environmental impact, what is your opinion regarding the Mayan Train project?
MF: I am used to being very respectful of giving an opinion on a project that does not fall under state jurisdiction. However, I can tell you that any project that seeks to decentralize is a positive project. The idea of a Mayan Train project that seeks to bring tourists closer to Yucatan, but also to Campeche, Tabasco, and other states, will always be positive.
FP: You are also working in Mérida with an electric train.
MF: Oh yeah! The IE-Tram. Governor Mauricio Vila is betting heavily on sustainable and sustainable mobility by air and sea, but also land. Mérida is a city that is growing a lot, so it requires good sustainable mobility projects that adapt to the needs of the population and quality of life.
FP: Finally, we have always wondered why the city of Mérida is not a World Heritage Site like Querétaro, Puebla, Oaxaca, and the other colonial cities that are emblematic in this country. Many of us believe that Mérida has all the attributes.
MF: Of course, we are interested; it is a great question. We are looking for it. Now it is more complex, but here we are. Currently, we have many heritages, and we are looking for more and not only for Mérida, but also for Yucatecan food, for the Mayan Houses, for Izamal, and others. With the pandemic, the topic faded a bit. We are already taking it up again; we do believe that the badges are important for promotion, but we believe that the most important thing is preservation and regeneration, which does not always go well with tourism.
