Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - On World Tourism Day, a ceremony was held at the Los Arcos amphitheater, where municipal and state authorities named 100 children as Guardians of Puerto Vallarta's Tourism Heritage. The Director of Municipal Tourism, Óscar Pérez, said that these 100 children will be in charge of caring for the municipality's tourist attractions and raising awareness among citizens on how important it is to maintain them.

"It is essential that new generations are conscience to everything we want for Puerto Vallarta, they are the caretakers of our tourist attractions and responsible for conveying the importance of them to their families, friends and everyone who lives in Puerto Vallarta," the city official said.

On behalf of her fellow custodians, 11-year Vanesa Estrada invited everyone to be Guardians of the Tourism Heritage this year, "by working and lovingly caring for our ecotourism heritage for the benefit of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco and Mexico."

The Tourism Secretary of Jalisco, Enrique Ramos Flores, congratulated the children for engaging in these activities and told them to always give their best to the thousands of people who can vacation anywhere in the world, but choose Puerto Vallarta as their holiday destination.

"It is great that at this early age they have a raised awareness, that they realize the importance of tourism, and they share it," Ramos Flores added.

At the conclusion of this event, the municipal and state authorities and representatives of business organizations moved to Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport, where passengers on Aeromexico 138 from Mexico City were welcomed by a Mariachi band. The destination's 865,000 national air passenger was on the plane, and was gifted with a courtesy "Viva Tequila" tour and a kit full of Puerto Vallarta branded products.

The 865,000 passenger on the national flight from Mexico City was Alberto Bostico of Córdoba Argentina, who was traveling with his wife Elena Venchi. This was their first visit to this tourist destination, and they were very excited and happy with their reception.

The passengers on an international flight from Phoenix were similarly greeted. Among them was this year's 1,875,000 international passenger, Elizabetha Carbajal, who was accompanied by her husband, Robert Divasto, and their children. Their first visit to Puerto Vallarta was on a cruise ship, and they decided to return to learn more about the city at a later date. This trip was their third visit to this vacation destination.

"We wanted to make World Tourism Day, a 'cut-off date' to measure the number of tourists that have come to Puerto Vallarta by air on both national and international flights so far this year (from January 1 to September 27, 2015). Today we welcomed the 865,000 passenger on a national flight and the 1,875,000 international air passenger. For us this is very significant, it helps us to realize that 2015 has been an excellent year for tourism. In just these two areas (national and international flights) we've welcomed almost 2,700,000 visitors, and our goal for this year was 4,700,000 tourists in total. At this point, we believe that we are going to exceed that goal because there is still the best season - the winter season - to come," said the Municipal Tourism Director, Óscar Pérez.