Mr. Tintos Funcke, let's take a look back, what would you consider were the main achievements of your dependency in the past ?
As of last Friday, I've been the head of this office for eight years now: the last three years of the past State administration with former Governor Ernesto Rufo; the three years that Governor Hector Teheran, who passed away, headed the State government; and now with the present Governor Alejandro González Alcocer. There's been a lot of work achieved but basically I would sum it up in a more professional way of doing tourism, of promoting it and promoting an integral development of tourism, recognizing tourism in Baja California for its multiple facets, starting off with a traditional one which is to promote what we already have. We've implemented new campaigns, new procedures, and new strategies that have never been done before in the State. We're proud to say that the Federal Secretary of Tourism or other state governments in the country has taken many of them as an example on a national basis. We've reactivated a state hotel room tax which in only three years has given us five times more resources for the promotion of our attractions and activities. We've been able to increase the number of events from 100 to 250 events per year. We are the state in Mexico that has the largest calendar of tourism events in the country, many of them project us worldwide such as the off-road races, the Baja 1000, the Baja 500, the Rosarito-Ensenada bike ride (the fourth largest in the world), regattas, different expos, sea-food expos. That is, different events that generate for us millions of dollars in revenue for the cities that play host for these events and at the same time project our name and our image to many media sources throughout the world. We've added as a generator of tourism for our State the film industry since the establishment of the 20th Century Fox Studios here in Rosarito beach where Titanic was filmed and six other motion pictures. This has generated for us a new activity that in just three year has brought over 75 production of different types: from TV documentaries, full-length movies, TV series, TV commercials, musical videos, commercials from Europe, Canada, the USA, Mexico. And all of these activities also represent important revenue: the contracting and use of different types of services in our community. We've attracted investments we want here in our State so that we have more family-oriented tourism and at the same time retain our tourist for longer periods which will translate into more revenue for our tourism economy. Besides the 20th CFS, there's an entertainment center called Foxploration built next to the studios by 20th CF. It's around an 8 million dollar investment, probably more, that will give a unique behind-the scenes look at film making but in an entertaining way for all the family, a new 42 million dollar investment cruise-ship terminal in Ensenada that will consolidate Ensenada as the number-two cruise-ship port in Mexico, only after Cozumel. In general, golf courses, marinas, infrastructure that again can help us attract more visitors and stay longer but with a better quality tourism. We've also initiated different programs, that's why I mentioned a more professional way of doing tourism: studies, master development plans, plans for our main tourism regions which have also been taken as a model on a national basis so that we can give incoming investors more certainty on aspects such as the use of land, areas that must be preserved and cannot be developed, we produced different planning efforts for eco-tourism developments so that now, anybody who comes to Baja California to invest can be certain that where they are building they'll be provided enough information from our government regarding the profile of visitors, regarding financial aspects for the type of investment they want to do. To give you an example, we did this five years ago in a small port we have on the Sea of Cortés called San Felipe and a lot of people didn't understand why we were investing all these resources and efforts in defining how we want San Felipe to grow, what goes where, what cannot be touched. And that program was the key element for the Federal Government this year to declare San Felipe a priority tourism zone of Mexico. That helped us to attract a group that is projecting to start in January the construction of two golf courses, hotels, marina and condominiums in San Felipe. But again, one of the main things that make Baja California attractive or different in the world is its natural beauty. Since we took office here, we have been very careful in not sacrificing that natural beauty and those natural resources in order to have more tourism services or infrastructure. We've focused on the so-called sustainable development, basically how our natural resources can coexist with some type of development, whether it's eco-tourism, whether it's low-impact investment but generating the economic benefits without necessarily impacting the environment. Another thing we've been recognized for on a national level is our training courses and what is called our cultural tourism program and this is going into elementary schools, high-schools, universities and to different organizations in our State to generate more awareness on what tourism is: why it is important for Baja California, how a Baja Californian can be a tourist and why we should be very good host to our visitor. And we produce various materials that have been distributed to the schools such as this calendar with the 12 paintings of over 500 that children drew last year to promote this calendar; this is how kids see our State and its attractions. This calendar is just an example, we have a booklet we've been giving out in the schools for the last 5 years and what we've achieved is that in BC we believe that tourism is more recognized as a priority. We've made tourism a popular element.
Do you feel that the perception of BC's image as a maquiladora state to a tourism state has already changed or are there still efforts to be undertaken?
No, maquiladora is one of the most important contributors to the growth of tourism in BC because in the process of making tourism a more recognizable concept, a more understandable concept by the community and in acknowledging tourism is not an elite thing, that you can be a tourist for many reasons and you don't need a lot of money or to be a foreigner to be a tourist. What we have taken to the community is the concept that anyone can be a tourist with a lot of resources and with access to a certain level of services or you can be a low-income tourist but at the same time enjoy your free time in a constructive way. In this process we have thanked our Secretary of Economic Development because as long as they attract more maquiladoras to BC, this generates a type of tourist which is business-oriented. To give you an example, Mexicali, the State Capital has had a maquiladora boom over the past five years and you can see it reflected in its number of hotels, restaurants, car-rentals, cell-phones, all the services a business-oriented tourist may need. So, this is what we have brought forth to government officials, to the State Congress, to the people that conform the tourism sector of BC, and we've told them maquiladoras and tourism go hand in hand, it's a type of tourism. In the same way we receive tourists for medical reasons, we receive tourists because of maquiladoras, tourists that come to because of those 250 events, tourists that come to the film industry, for religious reasons, for many different reasons. We are probably the Mexican State that receives tourism for the most varied reasons. We have the number-one spa in the world located in Rancho la Puerta, Tecate, according to Travel Leisure. We have one of the most modern spas in the world, which is the Sano VIP clinic south of Rosarito Beach, which receives tourists that stay for two weeks or maybe a month. Rancho la Puerta is a favorite hide out for Hollywood stars, business moguls, CEO, etc. I think creating a varied vision of tourism is one of the most important achievements we've had. One last thing that we've generated as of last year is a social tourism program where we are reaching 800,000 Baja Californians who work in the maquiladoras, who work in the unions, who belong to small business, who say "Wait a minute, now I understand the booklet my son received in high-school. Now I understand that there are a lot of things to see and do in BC, but I still don't have the resources." So we've generated a unique social tourism program because it combines three basic elements: we are promoting all the ranches and camp grounds and what we call "balnearios" that have swimming pools where you can have a barbecue, some where you can camp over night; we've gone with training courses for the owners of these establishments; we are financing the ones that already exist to have better facilities and the ones that have a property were a beautiful stream passes by and there's a road nearby and have a potential are being financed to develop the area as a ranch or as a camp site. That is something that Governor Gonzalez Alcocer has liked very much because this way, in our universal focus of tourism we are contributing to better integrating the families of BC giving them access to information for recreation through the hand-out we distribute in different sectors. In this way all the family can spend their time growing as a family.
Tourism in Mexico has produced a US$1.7 billion surplus, how does the State of California stand in percentage terms from this figure?
It is estimated that the northern border of Mexico
generates 30% of what Mexico has from tourism expenditure.
I think last year tourists spent $8.9 billion dollars
in Mexico. Out of that 30% percent, BC generates
51.4%. Tourism in BC means about 1.3 billion dollars
coming in per year to our economy. That is according
to Banco de México. That means tourists that
are coming into our border for hours as excursionists
spend around 30-35 dollars and tourists that come
for one or two nights are spending from 49 to 52
dollars. We are considered among the five most important
tourism states in the country. We have a very unique
and privileged geographical location, which can
work both ways because you can become compliant
because you are so near to the main provider of
tourists, the State of California. That's something
we battle day in and day out. We've just had a very
good Labor Day weekend, around 200,000 people came
in for some hours or for one or two nights. |
Isn't this a much to short time, wouldn't you agree that a sustainable tourism has to imply a longer average stay?
We wished we had an average of people that stayed more. Last year we had 28½million foreigner border crossings entering BC. That's why we've gone to the Federal Government and told them "Yes, you've got Cancún. Yes, you've got Los Cabos, Ixtapa and Acapulco, but pay more attention to the northern border because we have millions of people coming in." But they come and often they don't stay enough and the great majority are excursionist and don't spend the night. Why? Because of all of these reasons: we need a better infrastructure in the border so there won't be a three-hour wait; we need better urban development programs for the border cities in order to determine the tourism regions in each cities and create what we've called the "yellow brick road" for tourism. This is something we've discussed in the 3 meetings we've had with Fox's group regarding tourism. We presented a position to the incoming Federal Government saying "We can't continue to be such an important region and not receive the same attention as other traditional sights. If you pay more attention to these topics in the border, we are sure that in the mid-term we can convert a lot of those excursionists of hours into three-night tourist which would translate into more income for the country." That has been our fight. We believe we've achieved a lot in the past six years with this Federal Government but now we are very exited (BC has a PAN government), that we have a PAN president coming in and an ex-governor of Guanajuato where he promoted very interesting tourism programs and we've exchanged a lot of information. Our expectations are very high. More recognition of the northern border means recognition to BC, because we're the number-one state in the border but we need that same focus. We need the future Federal Government to recognize tourism as a priority, as an intrinsical concept, we need better infrastructure, more private investment, etc. If we achieve that, there's no stopping us because if you see the northern border, we are the great tourist provider for Mexico because of our location.
How much of your budget would be spent in the promotion of BC?
0.04 percent of the State budget is dedicated to tourism. That includes rents, salaries, promotional resources, and research resources. One of the things I'm most proud of is that every year I've increased the budget for our office, not necessarily because of inflation. At a national level, the budget is somewhere in the neighborhood. In cost-benefit, you see an industry that for our state generates 1.3 billion dollars and we're only dedicating that portion to tourism, something must be wrong. That's been our fight. I'm the first Tourism Secretary in Mexico's history that studied tourism. I started my administration at the age of 33 and a lot of people criticized my radical ideas. Tourism was seen as a very informal activity, a sure activity because of the great neighborhood we have. But our fight in Baja California caught on the rest of Mexico. That's why we're happy to see more recognition, but we need it to grow in the next government with examples such as declaring the northern border a priority zone, not abandoning the traditional locations but creating new Cancun's in the northern border. If we were to bring investment groups to the border, let's take the County of San Diego (that has over 100 golf courses, we have 6 as a state), just imagine the potential. There's 1.6 million yachts in the West Coast of the US and in Baja we have 2 marines. That just gives you an example of the raw material we have. If we were to get more attention, more resources, more coordinated efforts (we have the Escalera Nautica project with Fonatur, we need to speed it up!) we'd do great things with the State. If you can imagine bringing people from the West Coast in their yachts, it's a high-profile tourist that will later want to fly in. Those are the types of potentials we have as a State, we have over 1,000 miles of shoreline, and we have to exploit that with sustained development (we'd be one of the top 15 countries in the world if we were a country).
What is the origin of the tourists visiting Baja California?
Most present tourists are from the US. 90 percent come from California. 85% of our tourists are from the USA. There is a growing Arizona, Nevada and Colorado market. From other areas: Canada, Japan, and Europe. European tourists are mainly oriented towards eco-tourism, the whole peninsula is a giant eco-tourism destination. Eco-tourism looks for the authentic things that make your destination different. We have cave paintings, we have missions, the California gray whale, unique flora and fauna, a combination of habitats. I would describe BC as a place with variety: cosmopolitan cities with first-rate services, you can be surfing in Ensenada in the Pacific in the morning, take a beautiful three-hour ride here and be kayaking in the Sea of Cortés which is considered a giant aquarium, stay and go to the observatory 11000 feet up that's surrounded by pine trees and a beautiful lake and where it snows in winter and then come down to the desert that meets with the ocean.
How do you foresee the development towards a greater share of Asian tourism in BC?
It's been a gradual situation. For example any tourist worker has as a primary market California, the US, Canada, Asia and Europe. One of the things we lack are more international flights. When I was in Asia last year, we offered the alternative of Tokyo-LA and then from LA to take a cruise to Ensenada and then maybe drive back to LA. There are only two flights from LA to Tijuana. It's growing gradually but the other markets aren't as strong as the US market. The southern states, specifically California, continue to be the main providers of tourists for the main destinations here. The ones that go further south and go trough the peninsula tend to be European. The Japanese are still not so confident about taking that type of a vacation. According to statistics, the typical Japanese traveler is a woman between 21 and 25 years old, there's a trend of getting married in very unique places. We think we have material to interest them but it has to be very gradual because our main goal is to consolidate our US market, we have a growing market from Las Vegas, Arizona (that has the largest number of boats but has no beaches). The shore-less Arizona yacht owners could come down through Mexicali to San Felipe. The Escalera Nautica is actually contemplating the construction of transportation for yachts from one side of the peninsula to the other. Fortunately for us, we're the first step in the ladder. That's why we're hoping that the Federal Government will continue with Fonatur and speed things up, eliminating the procedures and bureaucratic steps.
What are going to be your primary goals for the next months?
I have only 14 months left in office. My immediate goal is to leave the Escalera Nautica in such an advantaged process that hopefully next year we'll have the ground breaking by the Grossman Group from Santa Rosalita to Bahía Los Angeles to create that canal, to leave San Felipe with the ground breaking of the golf course marina hotels and condominiums. We own the international airport in San Felipe, to leave it as part of the send-off of San Felipe in becoming an important destination, it was declared a priority zone by the Federal government. To leave the corridor between Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada consolidated. For Tijuana to take the definitive steps to build a multi-purpose center for expos, conventions, seminars and even large public events. Promote the Fox studios, and have more development around it. Ensenada as the number-two port for cruise ships in Mexico and in three years receive half a million passengers per ride. Once it's finished, it will be the port with the best technology in Mexico. And leave the southern parts of the state with a certain start-off byway of the Escalera Nautica.
Thank you very much. |
STATE of BAJA CALIFORNIA