For Mexican nationals in US, holiday travel to Mexico City expected to remain same

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Mexico City holiday travel expected to remain same

DENVER — About the same number of Mexican nationals living in the U.S. are expected to travel to Mexico City and surrounding areas for the holidays this year, despite the swine flu epidemic and the bad economy, a Mexican official said Wednesday.

The Mexican government will be able to track some of the travelers through the number of people who use the 55 aid and information stations opening for the holidays throughout the area near the capital, said Carlos Chapa Silva, one of the officials overseeing the travel program.

At least 130,000 Mexicans used the travel stations last year and that number is expected to remain the same this year, Chapa Silva said. The program is scheduled to run from Nov. 23 to Jan. 10.

Chapa Silva said that the fact that there was no decline in the number of visitors the last holiday season was an encouraging sign going into this year.

“The number of people that we helped didn’t go down, even in the middle of the economic crisis, so we’re expecting that this year there won’t be a decline,” Chapa Silva said in an interview in Spanish.

Chapa Silva was in Denver at the Mexican consulate Wednesday to promote the travel stations. He has also made stops in Tucson, Ariz., California, Washington, and Oregon, and in the coming weeks will be going to Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, N.Y., Texas and Florida.

In recent years, the Mexican government has estimated that the number of Mexican nationals living in the U.S. who return for the holidays is almost 1 million nationwide. Chapa Silva said that although the number of holiday travelers to the state of Mexico make up a small fraction of that, it has grown since 2000.

The aid and information stations that Chapa Silva is promoting will include security staff that can accompany travelers to their destinations. Some people travel during the night or in groups of vehicles and may ask to be accompanied for their safety, Chapa Silva said.