Market Ready for Certified Ecotourism in Mexico

Background

Since 2007 in the framework of the inter-institutional group of nature tourism the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) promoted the certification scheme for sustainable ecotourism, based on the NMX-AA-133-SCFI-2006 standard and since 2014 with the latest version of NMX-AA-133-SCFI-2013 as a result of extensive consultation with institutions, organizations, consultants and service providers involved in the subject.

However, the certification process was at a decisive point in moving from a scheme sponsored by the authority to one promoted by the market, for which it is necessary to maintain the largest number of certificates granted, since ecotourism enterprises that meet certain maturity criteria to be considered as consolidated companies, will have the opportunity to promote and position themselves internationally, and have greater competitiveness.

Objective of the Consultancy

Integrate Certified Ecotourism enterprises into the "Market Ready Ecotourism" framework as a platform for diagnosis, organizational development, comprehensive training and outreach to national and international markets.

Components

The components of this consultancy were guided by the specific objectives of the consultancy:

Validate the criteria of the "Market Ready Ecotourism" model applied to certified businesses (NMX-AA-133-SCFI-2013) as the framework for implementing a professionalization as well as a marketing strategy.
Validate the PICEE training programme in relation to the training proposal for "Market Ready Ecotourism" and select the appropriate online courses to be taken by the enterprises for their positioning.
Validated and tested integration proposal for Certified Ecotourism enterprises to a national and international dissemination strategy depending on their level according to the "Market Ready Ecotourism" criteria.

In this sense, the actions carried out and this Final Report are structured under these three components: