Selling Mexico: Marketing and tourism values

• Mexico has set a goal to increase tourism through marketing diverse destinations.
• Tourism has various effects on local economies and archaeological conservation.
• Marketing can be used to promote particular tourist values and to affect impacts.
• Archaeologists, communities, and tourism must unite to create effective marketing.
• Three Mexico Tourism marketing campaigns are discussed.

The Mexico Tourism Board has recently sought to diversify its tourism industry and increase the number of visitors to archeological sites by positioning Mexico as a cultural/historical destination as well as a sun-and-sea destination. While experts debate the positive and negative effects of tourism on Mexico's people and on archeological conservation, new trends toward so-called “responsible tourism” have emerged in the marketplace, indicating increased public awareness of the industry's impact, as well as a desire for more authentic and fulfilling travel experiences. Effective marketing can serve to promote particular tourist values that increase the positive impacts and decrease the negative ones. In the past, the goals of archaeology and tourism have been believed to be at odds, but if the two groups join forces to define the financial and non-financial objectives of particular sites, opportunities exist for the collaborative creation of marketing materials that promote those objectives and benefit both groups.