LAS VEGAS — Mexico President Felipe Calderon was widely praised here for implementing policies that make the promotion of tourism a major initiative of his presidency.
Calderon was the guest of honor during the World Travel and Tourism Council Summit, where he made an appearance on the last day. Peter Greenberg, travel editor of CBS News, interviewed Calderon and called the president's commitment to tourism "a national mandate."
Calderon named 2011 "The Year of Tourism" in Mexico, and said promoting travel to Mexico was "a priority at all levels of government."
He said that the country had invested about 5% of GDP into infrastructure that facilitates the growth of tourism (such as piers, airports and roads) and made changes to rules facilitating the entry of tourists to Mexico.
Greenberg did not let what he called the "elephant in the room" go unmentioned. He asked Calderon to clarify the issues of drug violence as they relate to tourism.
"The violence is not affecting tourists, and [tourists] are enjoying a great time in Mexico," Calderon said. "Yes, we have a problem. ... But Quintana Roo [home to Cozumel and Cancun] has a lower rate of homicide than any place in the Caribbean Sea, including Puerto Rico.
"We have a serious problem of perception."
Calderon explained that part of the perception is that people don't understand how large Mexico is and that violence is confined to certain states and is nonexistent in others.
The distance between Tijuana, the border city with California and site of much of the violence, and Cozumel, he said, is almost as far as the U.S. from coast to coast.
Despite those issues and the headlines surrounding them, tourism to Mexico last year increased 6%, with American tourism growing almost 10%. And Calderon has mandated that his government grow it even more.
To make that point, he had leaders from every level of government in Mexico, from mayors to members of the Mexico Congress, sign the declaration making 2011 the year of tourism.
Calderon said he is committed to moving Mexico from being the tenth most visited country in the world to being in the top five by the year 2020.
"You are a good example to many heads of state," Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, told Calderon.