Percepction of the tourism of the sun and beach destination of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, by domestic weekend tourists

Abstract

Since the construction of the Mazatlán-Duranfo Highway, and specifically over the past two years. Mazatlán has become a weekend tourist destination of the thousands of regional and national touristis, generating hotel occupancy rates of around 70% during 2022. This has promted the iniciative to study the image of the tourist destination for this type of national market. The objetive is to analyze the perception of the tourism image of the sun and beach destination of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, by national weekend during the last four months of 2023. To this end, the theoretical framework-consists of various academic works related to the analysis understanding and construction of the tourist image of the tours destination, as well as the personal and motivational factors of the domestic tourists, based on the tourism image model pf Baloglu and McCleary. A quantitative methodology with a descriptive and cross-sectional scope was used, A survey was used to collectdata, and 573 questionnaires were administered to domestic tourists over the age of 18. Some results show that 43% are regional tourists (from states bordering Sinaloa), spending an average of 5,000 to 10,000 pesos per person, traveling as a family and staying 1 to 3 days. More than 60% have visited the destination multiple times. Their main reason for visiting is to visit the beach and the main component of the tourist image is that it is a safe, reliable and ideal vacation destination. The conclusion is that Mazatl´án is a destination that receives regional tourists and is loyal to the destination, who travel with their family, whose motivation is to visit the beach and who evaluate their perception of the tourist image as satisfactory and recommend the tourist destination.