MEXICO CITY – It was a bad week to sell Mexican tourism, and the scenario worsened on Friday when the English edition of the country’s online tourism page gave the impression of hilarious translation errors.
Entire states such as Hidalgo and Guerrero have automatically translated as “Noble” and “Warrior”.
Worse for the site VisitMexico.com, there has been a systematic and inexplicable reinvention of the names of some well-known tourist cities. The Caribbean beach hotel in Tulum has become a “monkey”. The nearby Bacalar lagoon on the Caribbean coast has been moved to the Gulf Coast of Tabasco state.
The problem came a day after the U.S. State Department cited the most COVID-19 cases in Mexico for issuing a “no travel” notice for the country, its highest level of caution. Hours earlier, the beach hotel in Acapulco forced to run “everything is allowed” tourist ads that showed other people partying without mask and the words “no rules”.
But VisitMexico.com disorders have led to howls of hilarity and anger. The beach hotel on the Pacific coast of Puerto Escondido has become “Puerto Escondido”, a literal translation, and the northern city of Torreón has become “Torreta”, which is nearby.
Some call adjustments were simply inexplicable and seemed to have as much to do with the invention as with an undeniable translation. The town of Aculco, in central Mexico, has some “I blame” and the town of Ciudad Madero, on the north coast of the Gulf, has “Log”.
“Stop making Mexico look ridiculous!” wrote former President Felipe Calderón on his Twitter account.
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Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism issued an apology for the allegedly outsourced errors, but then gave the impression that something sinister had occurred.
“The Tourism Secretariat sincerely apologizes to the public and users for the effects that happened on the VisitMexico online page,” he said. “In addition, we are making known that these acts are intended to prejudice the symbol of the online page and the department, so a criminal complaint has been filed and appropriate legal proceedings will be initiated against those responsible.”
The branch did not make this claim, but local media reported that the dispute could involve an Internet service provider angry that they did not receive payment.
On Thursday, officials got rid of a couple of Video-rated ads from Acapulco promoting the reputation of the fuzzy nightclub, even though nightclubs are closed lately to reinforce social estrangement. They claimed that the advertisements were not suitable for the coronavirus pandemic.
“We stopped being a postcard from the past, today we replace the rules,” says a narrative in one of the videos. “Actually, there are no rules,” the voice says, because you can see other people having weird meals and going out to nightclubs. “Eat what you want, have fun day and night and until the early hours of the morning … look for new friends and new loves.”
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