20. Tourism development in different countries Tourism in Mexico

Mexico is the seventh most popular tourist destination. Tourism in Mexico is growing very quickly; it is the second after the oil industry. The government and business recognize the importance of tourism for the country. State and business organizations develop a modern tourist infrastructure, improve tourist facilities and services. Mexico offers beach holidays, cultural and exotic tours.

The north of the country is associated with cowboy films, great mountains, deserts, canyons, plains, and giant cacti. In the south you can find green tropical plains and spectacular rainforests on the Atlantic coast. Picturesque coastal sites and beach resorts, such as Acapulco, Merida, Veracruz, La Paz, Cancun are favorite tourist destinations.

There is something very special about the Mayan culture and the beauty of their great stone cities and pyramids in the jungle. We know that they had a very good knowledge of astronomy. They observed and predicted the phases of the moon and solar and lunar eclipses. Today there still remains the mystery of their sudden decline and disappearance before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16^th century.

Mexican food is hot and spicy. Don’t miss the chance to try Tex-mex! It’s delicious. It’s a good idea to buy souvenirs in the markets. They sell a lot of Indian arts and crafts, so ceramics and rugs are nice gifts for your friends and family.

Well, Mexico is a wonderful place to relax and find out more about the world and people.

The recent development of tourism in the Czech Republic

The situation changed dramatically after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Before then, in communist times, people had the right by law to travel abroad but it was limited, not politically but financially. You had the right to apply once in three years for hard currency. And once you received it you could apply for a visa to travel out of the Czech Republic. In theory everyone could travel abroad once in every three years, but in practice this was not the case for 80 or 90 per cent of the population. It was impossible for the majority.

And then, as soon as the barbed wire came down, here the situation was very similar to Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. People were free to travel. They no longer needed a visa. Everyone had to go abroad just to prove that it was true. So there were queues on the frontier. Everyone went out of the country in the morning and came back in the evening just to convince himself that he could. It was a great sense of freedom.

And then people began to want to travel out for more than one day. Before the revolution there were only two travel agencies: the state travel agency and the cooperative travel agency. Both had been state owned. All trips had been arranged as group travel, so you had to stay with your tour leader. At the present times there are 3.000 travel agencies. Perhaps economic changes and market forces will reduce this number but Czechs love to travel. The most popular way to travel is a coach trip because it’s the cheapest.

The number of inbound tourists also began to increase. Foreigners could always visit Prague, but with the cold war and the iron curtain people weren’t that interested. Now they are eager to see what they have been missing, and of course Prague is a beautiful city. It has monuments and buildings of almost every European period. The problem in the beginning was the lack of suitable accommodation. This was dealt with adapted and refurbished workers’ and student accommodation. Many international chains built new top class hotels. So, the Czech Republic has become a popular tourist destination.