Mexico City - NASCAR may be making its way south of the border to Mexico, according to Mexico's Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco Marques.

Torruco announced that, instead of Formula 1, the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is considering bringing NASCAR races to Mexico as they are self-financing and don't require government resources.

"Formula 1 does not have American champions so it has greater visibility in Europe, which is where their 'roosters' are. So, instead of hosting one Formula 1 race, we may have 15 or 20 NASCAR races, which are very popular in the United States," Torruco said.

"You have to remove inertias and see how to organize other events. I have spoken with the NASCAR coordinators and these races will have all the support they need. Why? Because they do it in a self-financing way," he added.

During Tianguis Turistico 2019, Torruco held a meeting with the National Association of Tour Operators of Mexico (ANTM), in which he stressed that individual states should diversify their tourism attractions with events like NASCAR races to draw new visitors and garner the interest of not only national tourists, but those from countries that generally visit Mexico, like the United States.

With NASCAR races, Torruco believes that Mexico could reroute tourists to other areas of the country since at the end of 2018, 80% of the 41,500,000 tourists that vacationed in Mexico visited only five destinations: Cancun, Mexico City, Playa del Carmen, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta.

Sources: Reportur • Travel Pulse