The US Hispanic market is quite diverse, but it is the largest minority group in the United States.  According to the US Census Bureau, a Hispanic is defined as an individual living in the U.S. territory who is either a native or descendant from a Spanish-speaking country. Latest figures compiled by researchers at the Pew Hispanic Centre indicate that there are close to 42 million Hispanics in the United States. That’s much more than Canada’s population and as much as Spain’s.  By far the largest nationality or ethnic background represented is Mexican with about 66% .  The other important groups would be Puerto Ricans and Cubans. While there are many common characteristics among Hispanics in the US, within these major groups there are of course psychographic differences, such as income, education, born in the US, immigrant to the US, sophistication, marital status, etc.  These characteristics should be remembered when marketing to Hispanics in the US.                                           

Hispanics’ purchasing power is approaching US $800 billion and given its growth potential many researchers and analysts, like Mission Capital Group, are predicting it will grow to over US $1 Trillion by 2010. 

US Hispanics and Canadian Tourism.  It would be safe to say that, historically, the US Hispanic market has been ignored by Canadian Tourism.  After all, this market has really just become important within the US itself in the last 10 to 15 years.   While it is true that many in the US Hispanic communities live in poverty and that their median income is much lower than that of the average mainstream American, it is also true that there is a growing Hispanic middle and upper middle class in the United States. Today, there are many Hispanics in high profile occupations in the US, like Alberto Gonzalez, US Attorney General; Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles; Manny Díaz, Mayor of Miami; Carlos Alvarez, Mayor of Miami Dade County; the late Roberto Goizueta, CEO of Coca-Cola;  Jennifer Lopez, singer/actress;  Ricky Martin, singer; Christina Aguilera, singer; Gloria and Emilio Estefan, record producers; Maria Elena Lagomasino, CEO of Asset Management Advisors LLC and many more. 

US Hispanics and travel.    US Hispanics are no different from anyone else in the Western world.  They like to travel.   According to studies by the Travel Industry Association of America and, TravelScope (as quoted on Hispanic Online),  86% of Hispanic travel includes an overnight stay; 17 percent of Hispanic travel lasts seven nights or more, longer than the average U.S. trip (4.1 nights).  70% of Hispanic trips are taken by owned car or truck; 15 percent of Hispanic travel includes air transportation, and 7 percent involves the use of rental cars.   77% of Hispanic travel is for leisure; 59% of Hispanic travel includes two or more people from the household; 33 percent includes children younger than 18 years. 

The challenge for Canadian Tourism is to navigate the Hispanic ocean in the US to find the right marketing approach in order to lure those Hispanics who will come here by plane and those who will come by car.  Canadá en Español®’s approach is to first segment the market in order to zero in on those online Hispanic markets that may be more likely to search for information about Canada and then target those sub markets by using the Internet’s direct marketing capabilities.

sources: US Census Bureau, HispanicBusiness.com, Pew Hispanic Center

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