Sustainable Tourism in Latin America and United States

People defined the sustainable tourism of a country such as the environmental, economic, cultural, and social sustainability. The tourism change effects and shows the quality and development of a country. So as the delegation of Mexico to discover, it’s tourism industry continued its positive trajectory this year, posting a 6.9 percent increase in international tourist recently. This makes the sector the third-largest source of income for Mexico, behind the automotive industry and remittance from abroad. These great tourism statics cannot be without a sustainable plan and action of several aspects. First, Mexico is located in North America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the United States and bordering the North Pacific Ocean. The climate varies from tropical to desert. The 54.9% of the land use are agriculture lands and 33.6% of the land are forests. The nature resources are numerous, like petroleum, silver, antimony, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber. But the environmental issues still exist and become one of huge problems of Mexico, the most representative one are Climate Change and Water pollution. The climate change affects to the future of Mexico so much because it is linked to water, health, air pollution, traffic disruption from floods, housing vulnerability to landslides — which means we can’t begin to address any of the city’s real problems without facing the climate issue.

Also the natural freshwater resources polluted the rivers, groundwater and the urban centers along the US-Mexico border. These two issues already showed that people need to change and save for the future generations. On a regular basis since 2007, part of the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, the biggest city center street, was closed to cars to provide space for pedestrians and cyclists as part of the “Muévete en bici” (Bike Move). This event has grown to become the fifth largest car-free day in Latin America, with 48 km of streets closed to motorized traffic. Because of the tourists growth, there is the lack of public transport in a city of six million cars, according to official figures – a number that has doubled in the last 10 years. The government noticed these issues, they need to use their actions to be more sustainable for the tourisms. In 2017, Mexico’s $2.4 trillion has been made to be the 11st largest in the world. It has free trade agreements with 46 countries, putting more than 90% of its trade under free trade agreements. In 2012, Mexico formed the Pacific Alliance with Peru, Colombia, and Chile.

According to the World Bank, Mexico is Latin America's largest exporter of high-technology goods (High-technology exports are manufactured goods that involve high R&D intensity, such as in aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and electrical machinery. The companies hire foreign workers to maintain tourist attractions and provide services and goods to tourists. Mexico's current government, with the long-term aim to improve competitiveness and economic growth across the Mexican economy. Since 2015, Mexico has held public auctions of oil and gas exploration and development rights and for long-term electric power generation contracts. Mexico has also issued permits for private sector import, distribution, and retail sales of refined petroleum products in an effort to attract private investment into the energy sector and boost production. The local population of Mexico is 125,959,205.

It is the 11th most populated country in the world. Mexico also has a long history, cover a period of more than three millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the territory had complex indigenous civilizations before being conquered and colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century. So the historic cultures attract the tourists to visit. The tourists come to the museums to visit the world heritage that have been protected for a long time. The tourists population being growth, it also impacts the negative and positive sides on the historic cultures. Some Mexicans think that their culture will be selling by the commercial tourisms. But some think that it is a good opportunity to let Mexico become urban and keep the history. The government wants Mexico have more international connections with other countries and have positive and healthy tourisms in the future.