"Raising competitiveness is the main challenge of the touristicsector in Baja California, and to achieve this, consistent public policies that are aligned with the real needs of productive activity, are needed, improving coordination among the agents which are involved in this task, achieving greater efficiency in the allocation and use of public resources", state the advocates for the consolidation of the Trusts for the Promotion of State Tourism (FPPTE).

The goal, they explain, is to optimize public resources for touristic promotion through the reduction and consolidation of administrative/ operational costs as well as the professionalization and standardization of the FPPTE's staff profiles.

Moreover, the detailed implementation of the Government's General Accounting Act implies to adopt accounting-budgeting systems with a cost of 375,828 pesos, approximately, for each of the Trusts, which represents a total expenditure of one million 336 thousand 273 pesos for the 4 FPPTEs.

Based on the 2013 exercise, from the total expenditures incurred by the FPPTE, 27% corresponds to the administrative requirements and only 73% goes to investment promotion.

The current state administration seeks to reduce to 13% administration fee, giving 87% of the direct promotion of destinations State resources, with the help of public spending optimization programs.

The reasons behind this initiative are:

The need to reduce the FPPTE's costs of administration and operation; The ability to increase resources for the promotion of destinations in Baja California; Recurrent observation of regulatory bodies for violations of the applicable regulations; The need to professionalize and standardize the FPPTE's staff profiles; The labor-related risks for legal uncertainty in the current scheme; The possibility of eliminating the costs of leases and utilities, as staff could operate within COTUCO offices, inside any business organization (Hotel Association, CANACO, CDE) or, failing that, on the premises of the SECTURE; The power to suppress accounting and law firms. The SECTURE will offer support regarding the legal tasks for the procurement of goods and services; The approval of the application of expenditures and the implementation of accounting harmonization.

The proposed consolidation of Trusts states:

To maintain marketing committees for each destination, which will continue deciding the fate of promotion resources. A state Technical Committee with equal representation of IP and Government, three representatives of the private sector (director and two representatives of the Marketing Committees) and three Government representatives (SECTURE, SP and F, Administrative Office). A single bank trust with 8 sub-accounts; each destination will have its own sub-account from which it receives the resources it deserves from the Tax for Lodging Services. A concentrator subaccount for administration expenditures will be created, in which only the proportional part corresponding to each destination's administrative expenditures, is channeled.

Supporters of this initiative concluded that the consolidation of FPPTEs could represent savings between 45% and 53% of total expenditure management, i.e., the amount of 4.5 million pesos, annually.

This sum represents an annual boost to 9 additional million pesos in promoting tourist destinations in Baja California, through cooperative agreements with the Mexican Touristic Promotion Board (CPTM).

Potentially, it represents an additional investment in promoting Baja California of 45.7 million pesos over the current state administration.

They also assure that... Continue reading article here

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