Tijuana experienced its busiest tourism season of the last 20 years during 2017, according to Tijuana Conventions and Visitors Bureau President Francisco Villegas Peralta.

The improvement in tourism is attributed to different factors, including the promotion of tourism as part of a binational region that includes San Diego and Tijuana.

“Tijuana is a dynamic city that is having a tremendous growth particularly in culture, medical tourism, gastronomy, and in conferences and conventions,” said Villegas-Peralta. “At a state level, gastronomy is the biggest tourism attraction, mainly because 90 percent of the whole country’s wine production is produced in Baja California.”

Tijuana’s food culture is also becoming known at a worldwide level and was even featured in recent article published by The New York Times. In said article, published on Tuesday, Feb. 6, the existent culture among border residents of crossing the border as a daily routine is highlighted.

The medical tourism is also important in Tijuana, as this city is the second most-visited at a worldwide level for medical tourism.

“With Donald Trump as President, many Medi-Cal and Obamacare services have complicated for Latinos, so is easy for them to travel to Tijuana to acquire great quality medical services at a third of a cost compared to the United States,” Villegas-Peralta added.

To continue the growth in tourism of the Cali-baja region, leaders of this sector got together at a cross-border business forum held by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, on Thursday, Feb. 15, were many strategies were discussed.

“We talked about the strategy we have as an attraction for tourism in culture, business and medical services as a binational region, which represent strong industries in our region,” said Paola Avila of the San Diego Regional Business Chamber of Commerce. “When we worked together, we have a better impact, and what we need to do is to improve the border infrastructure, to reduce the border wait times.”

Avila shared that these reunions are done in a binational manner.

“We organized four of these forums every year, and we held two each year at our chamber’s facilities in San Diego, and the other two at the Club de Empresarios in Tijuana,” Avila said.

“The Tijuana and San Diego relationship is enviable because of its geographic position,” Villegas-Peralta added.