Luis Felipe Valdez Cavazos. Director of the Chihuahua Trusteeship in Mexico

Q- Mr. Cavazos, where exactly is the state of Chihuahua?

A- The state of Chihuahua is in the north-central part of Mexico. This is the only Mexican territory that abuts two American states (Texas and New Mexico). We’ve got domestic borders with Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango and Coahuila.

Q- We think the U.S. is by far your state’s number-one market. But in the case of Europe, what countries send most tourists to this destination?

A- As far as Europe is concerned, Germany is on top of the list, with Italy, Spain and France trailing behind.

Q- How many tourists do you approximately receive every year?

A- Well, the state of Chihuahua receives a ballpark figure of 3 million travelers every year, with nearly half a million heading straight to the region of Barrancas del Cobre. But, you know, it is 3 million tourists on the whole.

Q- You’ve got a well-known train, don’t you?, the one chugging along in Barrancas del Cobre.

A- We do have a train that ranks as one of the world’s top-10 shows of its kind. This train departs every day from the city of Chihuahua for a ride that takes somewhere between 12 and 14 hours all the way to the Cortes Sea in the city of Los Mochis, in Sinaloa.

The whole ride is broken down in stops, so the train leaves the city of Chihuahua to Menonitas and on to the gateway of Barrancas del Cobre. It then moves into the Barrancas del Cobre area as such, and southbound from there to the state of Sinaloa.

Let me tell you about what Barrancas del Cobre is all about, because this is the biggest geological compound of the Americas. The region comprises a surface of roughly 37,285 square miles, perched on the mountainous region of the Sierra Madre in the state of Chihuahua. There we see eight different canyons that vary in depth.

Q- How much weight does Chihuahua carry in Mexico as far as congress and incentive tourism is concerned?

A- Well, Mexico –obviously Mexico City- is one of the heavyweights, followed by Monterrey and Guadalajara, by far the two main cities of the country. Then, our two burgs of Chihuahua and Juarez come right behind, where we promote expositions, congresses and conventions. We’ve got our own Conventions and Visitors Office, both in Juarez and Chihuahua, and we’re now setting another one in Barrancas del Cobre and a fourth one in Parral in southern Chihuahua.

The kind of congresses and conventions that we hold here in Chihuahua are national level, while the events in Parral and Barrancas del Cobre are even of the regional type. But we’re working hard in this direction and our efforts are certainly paying off. We count on good facilities in both Juarez and Chihuahua for much bigger events. The figures are in the neighborhood of 2,000 people in Juarez and 1,500 attendants in Chihuahua. As a matter of fact, the latter will be outfitted with a convention venue by August this year. We also count on an exhibition surface of 6,500 square meters there, and very soon we’ll have a conference center ready to seat up to 3,000 participants in one single event.

Q- How does Chihuahua stack up against other Mexican states as far as safety and security are concerned?

A- We’re working very, very hard in that sense. We rely on the Chihuahua Police Department, which is by the way doing a wonderful job, and we’re also closely in touch with the state’s judicial police.

Q- Do you have any specific actions in store to lure the Spanish market?

A- Yes, we do, and we’re also working hard in that direction. We’ve got someone representing us here in Spain, a person who’s going to keep tabs on all the visits we’ve paid in an effort to keep ourselves posted on everything that’s going on in the state of Chihuahua, as well as to keep track of all new travel packages and new fares we’re going to be working on in the course of 2004.

Q- Is there anything else you’d like to add? The mike’s on, so go ahead.

A- I’d like to thank you for this opportunity to talk a little bit about Chihuahua. I also want to say this is Mexico’s largest state with a surface of 153,478 square miles teeming with archeological sites and such attractions as the border city, Pancho Villa’s Stone in Parral, the Desert of Chihuahua –the largest in the Americas- and lots of other attractions. In addition, we’re developing an array of other tourism-oriented activities, such us mountain cycling and hiking, as well as countryside, adventure and business tourism, just to name but a few.