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WTO.TedQual Volunteers Present Tourism Competitiveness Plan for the State of Tabasco in Villahermosa, Mexico

The group of students and professors involved in the 2005 WTO.TedQual Volunteers pilot project in Tabasco, Mexico presented the preliminary results of the ”Tourism Competitiveness Plan for the State of Tabasco: 2020 Vision” to state and national authorities, as well as representatives of the municipal governments, private sector, and civil society of Tabasco. The event, which was attended by more than 500 people, took place on 14 October in the planetarium of Villahermosa, capital of the state of Tabasco.

The findings focused upon three principal areas:

The positioning of Tabasco in international markets, as well as the dimensioning of its tourism products and the sustainability (economic, social, and environmental) of tourism activity within the state. It was proposed that Tabasco be repositioned as a tourism destination within the Mundo Maya under the brand ”Tabasco, Ríos Mayas”, or ”Tabasco, Mayan Rivers”. This brand synthesizes the competitive advantages of Tabasco in cultural and nature tourism.
The quality of Tabasco’s tourism products and services in order to achieve customer loyalty and establish Tabasco as a national and international tourism destination. One of the recommendations was a quality management system based upon the WTO.SBEST prototype.
The efficiency and profitability of tourism activities in Tabasco, considering tourism activity as an alternative for the sustainable development of Tabasco in the 21st century.

The ”Tourism Competitiveness Plan for the State of Tabasco: 2020 Vision”, contains six recommended programmes and 31 sub-programmes aimed at achieving objectives in the three principal areas mentioned above. These programmes are (i) Tabasco WTO.Sbest, (ii) Tabasco Position-Promote (iii) Tabasco Incubator-Innovate-Renovate, (iv) Tabasco Market Intelligence, (v) Tabasco Educate, y (vi) Tabasco Coordinate. The formulation of the programmes was based upon a benchmarking study, interviews, workshops, surveys, a FAS (Factors, Attractors, and Supports) inventory, and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis conducted by the volunteers.

The group of volunteers in Tabasco was made up of graduate students and professors from universities with WTO.TedQual Certification: Universidad de las Islas Baleares, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, and Universidad Externado de Colombia. La Universidad del Valle de México served as a local counterpart. The volunteers were accompanied by WTO officials and experts, as well as officials from the tourism administrations of Tabasco and Mexico.

During the course of the two-weeks of fieldwork, over 700 people were consulted in more than 65 interviews and workshops with representatives of municipal governments, the private sector, and civil society. Volunteers also toured the state of Tabasco extensively in order to see the tourism resources first-hand and obtain consensus among stakeholders. In this regard, both the Secretary of Economic Development and Tourism of Tabasco, Carlos Madrazo Cardenas, and the director of the WTO Department of Education and Knowledge Management, Dr. Eduardo Fayos-Solà, highlighted the importance of consulting and involving the people of Tabasco in the project.

The presentation, which lasted four hours, was presided over by Madrazo in representation of the Governor of Tabasco, Manuel Andrade; Fayos-Solá, in representation of the WTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli; and Victor Chalé Góngora, General Director of Tourism Culture Development of SECTUR, in representation of Under-Secretary of Tourism in Mexico, Francisco Madrid. Also in attendance were other heads of government in Tabasco: Jesús Tapia Mayans, Secretary of Communications and Public Works; Jaime Lastra Escudero, Secretary of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; and Máximo Evia Ramírez, Secretary of Culture, Recreation, and Sport. The moderator for the presentation was José Antonio Nieves, Under-Secretary of Tourism in Tabasco. Business leaders, government officials (national, state, and municipality-level), and members of civil society made up the majority of the audience.

The WTO.TedQual Volunteer’s work appeared widely in the press of Tabasco, with coverage by three television networks, two radio stations, and several print media.

All of the results of the volunteer’s work will appear in a final report, which will be delivered to authorities of the Government of Tabasco in December.