China is Mexico's top priority for attracting tourists, says minister

MEXICO CITY - Mexico is seeking to attract more international tourists, and China is a priority market, said the country's tourism minister on Wednesday.

"There is no doubt that, given the efforts we have made in this administration ... that China is a priority," Enrique de la Madrid said at a press conference during a tourism event in Mexico City.

De la Madrid said Mexico was delighted to have two flights connecting the country directly to China now, operated by Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

However, he said that Mexico's efforts needed to go beyond traffic, and other areas such as language barriers should be taken into consideration.

"Mexicans need to begin learning Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Japanese. We must generate conditions for different states to be able to receive these visitors," emphasized the minister.

In 2017, Mexico became the sixth most visited country in the world with 39.3 million visitors, a 12-percent increase from 2016.