The arrival in Mexico of more than five million visitors for the 2026 World Cup, a figure estimated by the Federal Tourism Secretariat, will put the country with a strong challenge and pressure in urban infrastructure, airports, ports and land routes, considered a logistics expert.
To this are added the strong demands in services of last mile, inventories, customs and supply of essential goods.
The tournament, which for the first time in history will be played in three countries, Mexico, the United States and Canada, summons 48 selections, has 104 games, 12 of them in this country, including the inauguration at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City, on June 11, in addition to matches in the cities of Guadalajara and Monterrey.
“Mexico is on time, but it does not have all the time in the world,” he warned in an interview with Efe Mario Verraldo, general director of MTM Logix, logistics intelligence company and supply chain solutions.
“If we start talking about the subject, to put the different scenarios on the table, to discuss the ways of mitigating risks and everything, we are on time, but if we leave it for Christmas and New Year we run the risk that that has to be done in an accelerated way,” he added.
For the expert the central theme is with what “tranquility and fluidity you can do the plan, execution and give a spectacular experience to visitors what an event of this magnitude requires.”
The biggest challenge: Mexico’s airports
With a distance of about 45 kilometers between the Mexico City International Airport and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), in the State of Mexico, Verldo assures that the issue of greatest impact in the case of the Mexican capital will be the airport.
“For me the great challenge is the issue of airports of Mexico,” and gave as an example that on average 40 minutes are needed to enter the parking lot of the Mexico City.
“If you add all the critical mass of people that will come for the event, who are millions of visitors, then we have to think that these people will have to move from the airport to the city and how are they going to do it?”
To Verraldo the logistics challenge that Mexico has before it “is very large and there is also a planning challenge that should start from now on” and recalled that for the 2014 World Cup Brazil all adjustments began in 2012.
Project the country as a safe destination
On August 22, the Permanent Commission of the Mexican Congress approved a proposal by Senator Clemente Castañeda, of the Citizen Movement Party, to urged the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the 32 states of the country to strengthen the tourism promotion actions of the country abroad before the realization of the FIFA 2026 World Cup.
And the Ministry of Citizen Security and Protection was also urged and the Ministry of Tourism so that in coordination with state and municipal governments strengthen security actions aimed at the safeguard of national and international tourism before this sports fair.
“The country has a unique opportunity to project itself as a safe, modern and sustainable tourist destination in the eyes of the world,” he said.
Mexico faces challenges of mobility, urban planning and social impacts by the football tournament in the cities headquarters Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City, in the case of the last two are of the few cities in the world that will host three times of the World Cup (1970, 1986, 2026).
With EFE information.
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