The Director of Tourism in Puerto Vallarta, Jose Ludwing Estrada Virgen, said that Puerto Vallarta is the number one destination for the state of Jalisco because of its large tourist influx and economic impact to the state, and the second most important in Mexico.
In an interview, the official of the State Tourism Secretariat, added that nationally, the city is one of the most important tourist destinations, “after Cancun are have Puerto Vallarta and then Los Cabos, economically speaking and the number of tourists each year.”
He established that last year, Puerto Vallarta received a tourist influx of over four million visitors.
He noted that there are 23,000 rooms for lodging, “with hotels from special classification, boutique, resorts, five stars and even one star.”
He said that the restaurants of Puerto Vallarta stands out, “there are around 500 restaurants of very good quality, and with taco stands and other snacks there is much more.”
Estrada Virgen highlighted that Puerto Vallarta is located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, within Banderas Bay, in the state of Jalisco.
“It is one of the largest bays in Mexico and Latin America, measuring 42 kilometers from east to west and 32 kilometers from north to south, and is one of the most beautiful in the world,” he said.
He explained that Puerto Vallarta is a beach destination, “has beautiful beaches, ecotourism, gastronomy, culture, sport fishing, walks by the bay, adventure sport, etcetera”.
“We have the Sierra Madre near Puerto Vallarta, 50 kilometers away is San Sebastián del Oeste, 90 kilometers away is Mascota, and 120 kilometers away is Talpa de Allende, which are three Magic Villages of Jalisco, which is a further attraction for visitors to Vallarta “.
The official said that Puerto Vallarta is one of the favorite destinations for national and international tourism, and this year they expect to exceed the tourist influx and the economic outflow in relation to 2015.
He noted that most of the foreign tourists are from the United States, and followed by Canada, “we also have European market coming from England with weekly flights to our tourist destination.”
In addition, he mentioned, “we have Central American tourism, and in a smaller amount but that is increasing South American tourism, with Colombians, Chileans, Brazilians and Argentines.”
He affirmed that 2016 has been a year “very good in cruises, because every day the number of passengers arriving by cruise increases grows, who are of third generation as they are called”.
He says that on average, in each cruise, 3,000 passengers arrive with 900 crew,” so we speak of about four thousand people who arrive to Vallarta with each ship arrival.”
“There are also medium-sized cruisers, but most of them, which started arriving in October, are large, and it is estimated that a total of 140 cruise ships will arrive in Vallarta this year,” he added.
The Tourism Director commented that this is one of the ports where passengers tend to spend more money, “between 110 to 120 dollars on average per person is spent in the city.”
He pointed out that Vallarta has had considerable growth in 2016, “it has been one of the best years we’ve had.”
“In addition to the investment, new developments are coming to our tourist destination, a new shopping center, three new hotels, an aquarium and the passenger terminal of the cruise ships are being built,” he said.
Estrada Virgen said that they work to bring more tourism, “especially for tourists to return home satisfied and to take a pleasant experience from our destination and Jalisco.”
He said that in Vallarta there are many American and Canadian residents, “who are already retired, decide to buy a house and stay for a living, or there are some who, thanks to the internet, work from here.”
He noted that at the Latin American level, the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima “stand out for having the largest number of foreign retired residents, we previously had an influx of about 50,000 residents between Nayarit and Jalisco.”
He recalled that Jalisco “has great attractions such as mariachi, tequila, charrería and gastronomy, and we try to ensure that all domestic and foreign tourists who arrive are happy.”
By Hugo Pescador Pacheco /Notimex
