'China travel' trending among younger generation, even entire society in Mexico: Mexican official

Mexico's Secretary of Tourism Miguel Torruco Marques. Photo: Chen Qingqing/GT

Another direct flight route between China and Mexico will be opened on Friday. This route, Beijing-Tijuana-Mexico City, will be the second direct flight route between the two countries, following the resumption of the Shenzhen-Mexico City direct flight route in May this year, Mexico's Secretary of Tourism Miguel Torruco Marques told the Global Times in an interview on Thursday.

The opening of this route will promote travel from northern Mexico to China and bring benefits to enhancing bilateral relations, Torruco said, noting that traveling to China has become a trend among Mexican youth and expressed hope that more Chinese tourists will visit Mexico in the future.

On the evening of May 11, the first direct flight from Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, to Mexico City operated by China Southern Airlines landed at Mexico City's Benito Juárez International Airport after a 16-hour journey. The local airport held a water salute ceremony to welcome the arrival of the Chinese aircraft. This route, spanning over 14,000 kilometers, is currently the longest direct international passenger flight operated by China's civil aviation.

The enthusiasm for traveling to China has spread to the younger generation and even the entire society in Mexico, Torruco told the Global Times.

"Everyone wants to go to Xi'an [in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province], Guilin [in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region], Shanghai, Beijing, and [South China's] Guangdong," the Mexican official said, noting that Mexico has great potential as a source country for international tourists, and major airlines have recognized this, and have doubled their efforts to meet public demand.

Mexico is looking forward to welcoming more Chinese tourists. According to statistics from the first five months of this year, it is expected that the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Mexico in 2024 will exceed that of 2019 before the pandemic, Torruco noted.

With the increase in economic and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, more routes may be considered in the future, he said.

To attract more Chinese tourists to Mexico, the country is introducing many measures to enhance their experience, the Mexican official said.

"For example, setting up Chinese signs in some hotels and providing Chinese menus in restaurants," he said. Mexico welcomes more Chinese factories and enterprises, as they not only provide employment opportunities but also stimulate local economic development, he added.

China has recently been quite a popular destination for foreign tourists. Many have posted their experiences on social media. Numbers show that "China Travel" has become a top trending search on multiple global social media platforms.

Government figures show that in the first half of this year, China received 14.635 million foreign travelers, up 152.7 percent year-on-year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Among them, 8.542 million entered China visa-free, up 190.1 percent year-on-year. As more and more countries benefit from the visa-free policy and as China adopts more measures to ease cross-border travel, "on-a-whim travel" to China is becoming a reality, Lin said.

The "China travel" boom stems from China's unique charm, and more importantly, an open and inclusive Chinese society, and the warm and hospitable Chinese people, the spokesperson noted.

"It's also the result of China's high-standard opening up. China will continue to embrace the world with open arms, inject new dynamism into the world with its development, and create more energy and enthusiasm for people-to-people exchanges between China and the rest of the world," he said.