Destination Weddings Big Boost to Mexico's Tourism Lauren Villagran - SmartPlanet
go to original April 24, 2013

Why not plan your beach wedding in Puerto Vallarta? (Promovision Professional Video Services)

About a quarter of engaged U.S. couples plan a destination wedding - up 20 percent over two years - and the vast majority set their sights on just three destinations: the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii. Mexico wants to capture a greater number of those ceremonies as the country strives to reposition itself in American minds as a land of sunshine, sand and palm trees - not of brutal drug violence.

Overall tourism to Mexico slowed last year, but the destination wedding segment in Mexico is booming, said Rebeca Gonzalez, wedding sales manager with Velas Resorts, which owns four properties in Puerto Vallarta and the Mayan Riviera that hosted some 200 weddings last year, 80 percent of them international couples.

Mexico grabbed another 1 percent of the destination wedding market between 2010 and 2011, according to the national tourism board; in 2008, the country unseated Hawaii as the No. 2 destination for exchanging vows.

... The drug violence continues unabated in many regions, but Mexico is a big country and most popular tourist destinations have been largely unaffected by six years of the government’s assault on organized crime.

And travelers’ security concerns seem to be fading.

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