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 Travel & Outdoors | July 2007 
Tourism Agency to Survey Mexican Citizens to Determine Spending Habits
 Gabriela Rico - Arizona Daily Star
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Who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing in this country? How long have you been here?
While many Mexican citizens may be accustomed to that sort of quizzing from U.S. officials, over the next 12 months those questions will be posed on behalf of the state tourism agency in an effort to find out how to keep them coming to Arizona.
They’ll be looking to survey people like Marcos Robles Arredondo.
Robles, a mechanical engineer from Hermosillo, Sonora travels to Tucson four to five times a year with his family to shop at the malls.
Over breakfast Friday morning at the Hampton Inn Suites, 5950 N. Oracle Road, he said there is one deterrent to the visits: the long lines at the ports of entry in Nogales.
“If it wasn’t for the crossing (waits) we’d come more often,” Robles said in Spanish.
The last such survey, done in 2001, showed that Mexican visitors to Arizona spent $962.9 million and the highest percent of those dollars - $301.6 million - was spent in Pima County.
With their spending power likely exceeding $1 billion a year, Mexican shoppers such as the Robles family, have become an attraction for businesses considering a move to Tucson.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles-based mega electronics store, which conducts its business primarily in Spanish, announced plans to open a Tucson location. Officials from La Curacao said they were drawn to Tucson because of cross-border shoppers.
The Arizona Office of Tourism is partnering with both the Phoenix and Tucson visitor’s bureaus and the University of Arizona to conduct the survey.
The goal is to interview 2,665 Mexican citizens as they return to Mexico and determine their spending habits, said Alberta Charney, senior research economist for the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.
Surveyors will interview visitors as they prepare to return to Mexico at both Tucson and Phoenix Sky Harbor airports and at Arizona’s seven ports of entry.
Charney said there is anecdotal evidence that border crossings by Mexican shoppers may be declining.
“They may be spending more, but they’re coming less frequently,” she said. “It raises a lot of questions. Is it because of long lines?”
Along with wanting to know how much money Mexican tourists spend in Arizona, Charney said the survey will help determine how to better serve these visitors.
She said survey questions will include what malls they like, what products they buy and where they live in order for businesses to market to them in their home town.
Lupita Dueñas de Balderrama liked that idea.
“They should place more ads in our newspapers and magazines so we know about the sales,” she said.
Dueñas and her husband, Dr. José Antonio Balderrama, of Hermosillo, vacation and shop in Tucson at least four times a year, spending more than $1,500 each time.
Clothing stores in Hermosillo are more expensive and have less variety than Tucson stores, she said Friday morning, preparing to head out for Park Place with daughters Ana Lucia and Rebecca.
As he kept a watchful eye on his three children in the pool at La Posada Lodge and Casitas, 5900 N. Oracle Road, Hernan Chávez, an Hermosillo civil engineer, said he comes to Tucson for electronics, home furnishings and clothing.
He estimates spending about $1,000 each time he visits - about five times a year.
Chávez said he waited an hour and 20 minutes to cross into Arizona at the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales. Expediting that entry would encourage him to visit Tucson more, he said.
Charney said the survey results and subsequent report should be ready for the tourism department by next summer.
Contact reporter Gabriela Rico at 573-4232 or grico@azstarnet.com. |
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