Mexico launched an app with a catalogue of safe tourist services

• Authorities are seeking to reduce cases of commercial fraud in the sector, especially with travel agency offers | Photo: Pixabay

Mexico’s Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco announced on July 17 the launch of a digital platform and mobile application (app) of the National Tourism Registry (RNT) which contains a public catalogue of service providers tourist servicesticos in the country.

Tourists will be able to access the application to check or search for sites registered on the platform.

Torruco explained at the presentation of the app This registry will provide confidence and security in the tourist services provided to national and foreign tourists.

The Ministry of Tourism is the body responsible for issuing certificates that accredit the registered service provider company, whether hotels, travel agencies, food and beverage establishments, car rental companies, golf courses, beaches, theme parks, spastour operators and tourist guides.

For this reason, those who offer this type of services must register with the RNT to appear in the application’s catalogue.

Photo: Sectur / Courtesy

How does the tourist application work?

The Secretary of Tourism of Mexico explained that when downloading and entering the app General information on registered tourism service providers is displayed.

The behavior of these businesses in the commercial office of the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) and their status before the Tax Administration Service (SAT) are also shown.

The head of the Information and Monitoring Unit of the Ministry of Tourism, Alejandro Aguilera Gómez, explained that the new RNT platform allows for the registration and updating of data of tourism service providers quickly and digitally.

He added that the platform boosts competitiveness and improves the positioning of tourism service providers in the market.

The app It includes precise locations of businesses and tourist sites, and also has the possibility of interacting with other platforms such as DataTur and Atlas Turístico de México to obtain more information regarding a specific business.

Photo: Mexico Tourist Corridor / Courtesy

Objective of the digital platform

According to the Secretary of Tourism, the intention of the Mexican authorities with this platform is to “significantly” reduce commercial fraud that may occur in the tourism sector, especially with offers from travel agencies.

“Pirate agencies are an evil that we must eradicate because they damage the image of our tourism activity. We have committed ourselves to it, and this is one way of doing it. We will apply the full force of the law to agencies that are not registered with the RNT and advertise on the Internet. Enough fraud!” said Torruco.

The head of the tourism office indicated that at the beginning of his current administration, in 2018, they received the RNT with 19,900 registered tourism service providers and following almost six years, it now has 44,217 registrations, which represents an increase of 122%.

Torruco also mentioned that the latest business census in Mexico reported 68,401 economic units linked to the tourism sector, so the expectation is to have at least 55 thousand active tourism service providers by the end of the year, that is, 80.4% of the country’s total tourist offer.

With information from EFE

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