PR Central, a Mexican public relations agency specializing in travel and tourism, managed crisis communications in Mexico for Destination Canada, a client since 2014, when Canada reinstated visa requirements for Mexican tourists in February 2024. It trained 710 travel agents and opened a direct channel between the Mexican travel trade and the Embassy of Canada.
| Client | Destination Canada (Canadian Tourism Commission) |
|---|---|
| Relationship | Since 2014 |
| Start | February 2024 |
| Market | Mexico |
| Services | Crisis management, travel trade relations, travel agent training, media relations, monitoring |
What happened in February 2024?
The Government of Canada announced that, starting February 29, 2024, Mexicans would need a visa to travel as tourists. The exception was people flying with a valid U.S. visa or who had held a Canadian visa in the last ten years: they could still enter with a new electronic travel authorization (eTA).
In Mexico the measure was perceived as sudden. Tour operators and travel agents had trips already sold without knowing what to tell their clients, and the media were looking for someone to ask. Destination Canada needed the travel trade to keep selling Canada without the tourism brand ending up as the spokesperson for an immigration decision it was not its role to explain.
What did PR Central do?
- Listen first. Meetings with the main tour operators to understand what worried them and what they needed to keep selling.
- A direct channel with the Embassy of Canada. Dialogue with the Embassy, including the ambassador, so the travel trade’s questions reached the people who could answer them.
- A single official source. Destination Canada gave no interviews on the subject. Media questions were answered with official information, and the Embassy remained the spokesperson on immigration.
- Three special newsletters for key accounts, the travel trade and Destination Canada’s travel agent database, with official information on the visa and the eTA: costs, processing times, biometrics collection centers and common application mistakes.
- Training for travel agents across Mexico, coordinated with Canada’s immigration office, and a section on the application process within the Canada Specialist Program, Destination Canada’s online training program.
- A pause in consumer communications. Pending actions in the winter campaign with publishers and content creators were put on hold, along with activity on the traveler-facing Facebook page, so as not to promote a trip whose entry requirements were in question.
- Daily monitoring of media and social media to adjust messages along the way.
What were the results?
- 710 travel agents trained across the country on the new visa and eTA process.
- Mostly positive coverage focused on how simple the process was, after an initial wave dominated by surprise and criticism.
- An open channel of dialogue between the Mexican travel trade and the Canadian government.
What does this case teach about crisis communications in tourism?
The two decisions that mattered most were not about saying more. The first was not turning the tourism brand into the spokesperson for an immigration policy: the authority explains the process, and the brand supports the people selling the trip. The second was pausing consumer promotion while the travel trade got to grips with the new rules; spending on a campaign when the public does not know whether they can travel only multiplies frustration.
What did multiply was useful information. The newsletters carried concrete data —in 2024 the eTA cost 7 Canadian dollars and the visa 100, plus 85 for biometrics— and the training sessions allowed agents to answer their clients the same day.
Is your brand facing a regulatory change or a reputation crisis in Mexico? Contact us or read our frequently asked questions.