February 2004

The passionate and textured voice of Lila Downs performs in Oaxaca, her spiritual and cultural home, for a benefit concert tonight and Saturday at the Teatro Alvaro Carrillo. The Oaxaca Times caught up with her recently for an interview. She will tour the UK again in June.

I’ve been wanting to write something recollecting my beach wedding on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Now seems a very good time… just a few weeks before we celebrate our tenth anniversary. I’m happy to be able to share these memories with you.

Almost one year ago I visited the Sierra Chincua butterfly sanctuary – a short distance from the small town of Angangueo, 110 km east of Morelia. Like most visitors, I took a horseback tour with a guide via the rough mountain trails.

From November to March, millions of Monarch butterflies, with their four-inch wingspans, cloak the trunks of the towering Oyamel fir trees and hang on boughs in clusters of tens of thousands in a sea of orange and black.

According to Monarch Watch, two colonies are present on Sierra Chincua this season. At El Rosario, which is always busier with tourists, there is one colony located to the NE of the sanctuary, so you will have to traverse the entire trail to see the butterflies.

In a repetition of the scenes in 1997 and 2002, a report this week suggests recent severe winter weather may have killed as many as 10% of the Monarchs.

Nevertheless, February is perhaps the best time to visit the area and our friend and pioneer of responsible tourism, Marlene Ehrenberg Enríquez, is organising a one-day tour of the sanctuary on 21 February. The tour will leave Mexico City at 07:00, returning about 17:00. The cost is 300 pesos – about $27 USD). Email Marlene, or visit her website for more information.

Building on the success of the marketing campaign launched by the Mexico Tourism Board two years ago, Mexico has gained in popularity for Americans taking winter holidays abroad.

In a new survey, The American Society of Travel Agents’ asked their members which destinations they were booking. Mexico strengthened its position, getting the nod from 27% of ASTA members – with the UK falling further behind in second place with 16%. Cancun was the second most popular international city (after London) .

After the Sept 11th terrorist attacks, aware of Mexico’s reliance on visitors from the USA and Canada, jittery tourism officials scrapped the planned “Many Moods of Mexico” campaign in favour of a new tag line to drive home the message that Mexico was ‘Closer Than Ever’. Around 80% of all foreign visitors to Mexico originate in the US, with well over a third coming from neighbouring California, Texas and Arizona. Another 7% of international visitors came from Canada.

Ad agency Young and Rubicam tailors the promotion message – funded primarily from the 15 USD visitor entry fee imposed in 2001 – to each market differently. In Europe, the slogan is ‘Mexico. Un país, mil mundos’ (‘Mexico. One country, many worlds’). The Mexicans are also looking to stimulate domestic tourism.

“We saw last year that Americans were choosing to stay closer to home when they travel,” commented ASTA president Richard Copland, “and this year that trend is more evident.”