03152016Tue
Last updateFri, 11 Mar 2016 6pm

Chapala’s delights pitched on jumbo ad

“Discover the Colors of Chapala” reads the legend on a billboard that monopolizes the skyline at Avenida Patria and Naciones Unidas, one of metro-area Guadalajara’s busiest intersections.

The message, emblazoned over a romantic sunset scene of Mexico’s largest lake, is one of the first of a series of lakeshore promotion initiatives spearheaded by   Ignacio Sanchez, regional office chief for Jalisco’s Ministry of Tourism (Seturjal).

The sign will remain at its current location for eight weeks before rotation to heavily transited Avenida Lazaro Cardenas for a 10-month stint.

The cost for the giant advertisement is coming out of the half-million-peso funding package Sanchez wrangled out of Fidetur Jalisco, an escrow fund set up to hold and distribute the three-percent tax billed by hotels and lodging establishment located in the interior of the state. Monies go towards diverse projects aimed at boosting the tourism industry is those locales. 

Among other campaigns Sanchez has up his sleeve for lakeside destinations are training sessions for hotel and restaurant staffers and other tourist service providers, scholarships for candidates enrolling in a University of Guadalajara course to become certified tour guides, and the installation of street signs along central streets in nine lakeshore communities.

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