If you look at Nogales, a dog versus a noise,
about 70% of their taxable sales are coming from basically
from some of the border.
Here in Pima County, it's about five to 6%.
So maybe not the huge,
the large impact, as you might see
along the border communities,
but definitely is going to be a very strong impact.
Just imagine with with the economic crisis that was brough
because of the pandemic
and not having that visitor from Mexico,
that was definitely something
a big impact to some of the local businesses .
Something that we notice is that hotel rates in particular,
they have actually increased in the pandemic.
If you look at revenue collections based on hotels,
the numbers are not bad,
actually, but it's not
because of occupancy is because of rates.
Hotels have been able to charge a larger fee. Why?
Because of compression of the market here, people in the U.S.
were not able to leave the U.S. for for many months.
So we stayed domestically.
So that helped create the demand
and people willing to pay a higher price.
Now, with the Mexico visitor coming here,
we want to make sure that they feel comfortable.
They want to come here.
Do they have the disposable income
and now something that, as you know, lowering
that is very interesting is that Mexican law,
they establish a Christmas bonus that is called united
or contrary to the U.S., that it's discretionary
to business to provide a bonus at the year end in Mexico.
By law, it has to be provided.
So in the next few weeks,
many individuals are going to receive an extra cash
and they're going to have a sponsor a week.
So that's why we're going and telling those visitors
about opportunities, sales, anything that we can have
give them a reason to come here to choose on
we or the state of Arizona
and spend those monies here in our communities.
What's the likeliness, though, that the
Mexican shopper stays in Mexico and spends their money there
because they've been used to that over the last 20 months
Absolutely. That's something
that we'll have to change because of two reasons.
Number one, as you mentioned,
it's so people started getting used to buying in Mexic
and not leaving the country and finding deals and
and finding product and people
actually making that
product accessible or available down in Mexico.
A number two years ago, Mexico got very smart
and they sold our Black Friday and they say, Hey, in the U.S.,
there's this great phenomenon of Black Friday or businesses
doing promotions and specials,
and they sort of protocol when seen the good weekend.
And he was supposed to be one weekend. And where is Mark?
They needed the weekend before Thanksgiving.
So trying to again,
those individuals are we're thinking of
leaving Mexico to go shopping, that they will stay,
but now will when finished extending to eight or nine days
So it's becoming just
almost a week or more than a week actually
of discounts and offers. It's happening right now.
If you go on Google business in Mexico, big retailers,
you'll find all of them
with very aggressive campaigns to try to retain those monies,
not leaving Mexico and leaving the country.
So there was those two factors
that we have to go and actually
change the perception of the visitor from Mexico.
So if you're a Mexican national,
what's the draw to come to the United States to shop?
Well, still, there's a couple of things no one is going to be
The variety of product,
I mean, the number of stores that we have here,
we see it a lot.
For example, we keep some baby clothing specifically.
There's many stores here in the U.S.
that will offer the kind of products
in Mexico is more limited and still pricing.
Mexico has an on the clock trade war with China.
So you'll see a lot of products that are coming from China,
especially clothing.
Some electronics have higher prices based on duties
coming into Mexico,
so that still makes it more
affordable and accessible to come to the U.S..
So what we see again, those individuals and you'll notice
when you are around town driving any for border communities
in Tucson and in Phenix,
look at the license plates from Mexico,
look at their back of their vehicles with all the shopping.
They're not coming here to buy a pair of jeans and a one shirt
They're coming here to buy all the wardrobe
for the old family and buying electronics.
So that's a reason to come here.
They will spend more money,
but again they'll be able to get
more deals and better pricing on selection
coming here to the U.S.
. OK, Felipe, take out your crystal ball
and let's look into the holiday shopping season.
How do you see the next
few months unfolding here in southern Arizona
now that the restrictions have been lifted?
I think he's going to be interesting in choosing
many reasons. Number one,
we'll see those Mexican visitors
coming here and again you'll see them buying many products,
not only for them.
We're seeing a lot of Chinese family members saying,
Hey, if you're going to Tucson, here's some money.
Can you buy this thing from me?
We're going to see some challenges because again,
what is happening with the supply chain
in the U.S. and worldwide?
So we're going to have some
products that are going
to be running our shelves sooner
than we expected here in our market.
But we're happy again, some retailers that are smart
and savvy that they're starting to see those opportunities
and shifting some in the Tories because they know
they will be able to sell it here in Tucson.
Maybe not at least beyond maybe the full price,
but against the audition price for for them.
So we're going to see a thing that happens
in the holiday season, we just tell people.
Keep your eyes open,
look for those license plates, say thanks to them.
And welcome back to the U.S.
when you have an opportunity because again, they're
leaving a lot of money in our communities.
All right, we'll end it there.
Philippe Garcia from Visit Tucson. Thank you.
Thank you, Lorraine.