Mexico’s New Tourism Chief Takes Charge

Mexico City — Antonio Cosío has officially assumed the presidency of the National Business Council for Tourism (CNET), a move that was first reported in the Veranda column last January. The appointment was finalized last week.

The decision was reportedly made during the International Tourism Fair of Spain (Fitur), where a group of business leaders, including José Chapur, vice president of the CNET and tourism advisor to Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, convinced Cosío to take the role over a meal.

Although eight months passed before he officially took the position, and despite a former CNET advisor previously stating the initial report was incorrect and that the selection would involve a process with three candidates, the appointment ultimately proceeded. The delay was fundamentally due to the new business leader first negotiating the relevance of accepting the role with the council representing all companies of the Cosío family.

The CNET was founded during the administration of Miguel de la Madrid in the 1980s, after the then-president requested a single interlocutor to represent the country's main tourism companies.

Upon assuming the presidency, Cosío stated that his management will revolve around three central pillars: safe, digital, and regenerative tourism. He also acknowledged that the tourism sector faces various challenges, including a lack of promotion, the country's negative image, insecurity, and a loss of market share internationally.

Furthermore, he asserted that the three infrastructure projects inherited by the sector—the Tren Maya, the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, and the new Mexicana de Aviación airline—must be viewed responsibly.

While the conciliatory tone and diagnosis were welcomed, the core problem facing the CNET is that it has lost its capacity for dialogue with the federal government. Today, the leadership of the Mexican tourism sector, which directly accounts for approximately 9.0 percent of the economy, is at its worst point since Antonio Enríquez Savignac was the head of Tourism under De la Madrid, before he became secretary general of the then-World Tourism Organization.

On one hand, the National Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Tourist Services (Concanaco-Servitur) has become the equivalent of those YouTubers who go to cheer on the government during the president's morning press conferences. In the same vein, the CNET is a kind of blog that is only read by the majority of business owners who best know the tourism industry.

Although the previous CNET president never stopped throwing "chingazos," as they say in the north of Mexico, the net result was that his words had no effect on the government decisions of the current administration, known as the 4T.

When Carlos Berdegué, in his capacity as vice president of the CNET, pointed out the complete lack of promotion for the Mexico Brand during the past Tianguis Turístico in Tijuana, the Secretary of Tourism, Josefina Rodríguez, stated that such criticisms should be accompanied by a financial commitment.

There are many ways to form alliances, as evidenced by the case of a bank that reached an agreement with the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) to support the Pueblos Mágicos program by running campaigns in its branches and on its ATMs. Something that was precisely missing from Cosío's speech was a concrete explanation of what tourism entrepreneurs can contribute to make the 4T see the profitability of committing public funds to promotion.

Otherwise, there will likely only be more expensive analyses, like the one the CNET paid Deloitte for a few years ago, which only served to reaffirm what the business owners already knew.