By David Simmonds 

I have recently returned from Tourism Tianguis in Acapulco, the largest travel trade show and conference in Latin Amercia. It is a great, yearly event held at the Acapulco Convention Center, featuring 1,000 buyers from 30 countries that made business deals with over 500 of Mexico’s tourism service providers. There were also a series of press conferences geared toward the many media representatives from the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Canada.

I hung around with a couple of Canadian travel people (they like beer) and learned from them what I had witnessed for years…Mexico is a favorite destination for Canada. Some stats:

Nearly 1 million Canadians traveled to Mexico in 2006

Average stay was 11.1 nights

They spent over $1.01 billion dollars

These numbers are a 100% increase since 2002

What more Canadians are discovering is that Mexico is a lot closer than Europe, it is less expensive (they are a thrifty people), and it is much warmer, no matter when they travel. They are also attracted by the culture and history and the inexpensive real estate opportunities. As in the States, the Canadians have a large ready-to-retire population and more and more, they are looking south for a good place to spend some time.