SEFOTUR Announces New Marketing for Taxco

(Taxco, ElSur 28 May) In her first meeting with tourism industry representatives in Taxco, Graciela Báez Ricárdez, the secretary of tourism promotion for the State of Guerrero, showed that she was willing and eager to work with the private sector to “reposition” the city within the tourism market.

Ms. Báez offered to put together a marketing plan, focused on specific niches, and dovetailed into the marketing plan already in place for the upcoming “Jornadas Alarconianas” for the end of June. This is one of Mexico´s preeminent great summer literary and artistic festivals, named after Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, the famous dramatist of the 17th century, who hailed from Taxco. The head of the State SEFOTUR said that an idea would be to “improve the design of the event and to work on promotion and media coverage.” She said that “the twin ideas of culture and tourism are the key to enliven the main Guerrero destinations, through a joint, inter-institutional approach.” The fact that the event begins in barely a month did not seem to daunt her enthusiasm about redesigning the event and its promotion.

“What makes Taxco authentic,” she said, “is its own culture. We need to strengthen the events that take place in Taxco. My job is to promote, to design the campaign and invest resources for strengthening the [Jornadas].” She added the usual call for improved services, infrastructure and prices to guarantee return visits from those who come. To upgrade the services offered, Ms. Báez said that she was interested in “training programs and other means of improving the experience.” But the most important aspect for her is a marketing campaign in all available media to create a unified and consistent image for Taxco. She said, “In that way, resources are used most efficiently and the impact is the greatest.”

Besides the Jornadas Alarconianas, Ms. Báez suggested the same approach for the Silver Festival, the International Guitar Festival, Día de Jumil (the Monday following Nov 2, the Day of the Dead), and others. She said, “Taxco” is a trademark with a national and international acceptance. He advice was to re-engineer the promotion of the “Taxco” mark. She gave few details or examples, but did use the modern language of marketing throughout.