Mexico's Green Angels Run to the Rescue of Tourists
The Secretary of Tourism of the Government of Mexico, Miguel Torruco Marqués, announced that in 2022, through the General Directorate of Tourist Services of the Angeles Verdes (Green Angels), as many as 552,507 national and international tourists were attended and catered to, and 160,259 services were provided during their travels along the more than 37,000 kilometers of coverage in 199 stretches of the country's main tourist highways.
The head of the Ministry of Tourism (SECTUR) indicated that as a result of the actions and activities developed in favor of tourism by the Green Angels, last year a total of 11 million 126 thousand 472 kilometers were traveled, in addition, 31 thousand 560 calls were received, and support was provided in 472 accidents.
He emphasized that, in 2022, the agency under his charge carried out two fundamental actions for the renewal of the General Directorate of Tourist Services Angeles Verdes: the creation of the Geointelligence Center "Alfonso Garcia Gonzalez" and the delivery of uniforms for the 724 elements that allow a homologated institutional image, with security elements for the operative elements.
After two years of hard work, analysis and improvement of processes, accompanied by "homemade" technological developments, the Geointelligence Center now provides assistance to tourists who request help from Angeles Verdes through the free speed dial number 078, as well as the Angeles Verdes tourist application, which to date has 4,984 downloads on iOS and Android systems.
As part of the improvement, follow-up, attention, support and supervision is also given to all the technical operative elements and tourist aid assistants located in the 32 Tourist Aid Headquarters throughout Mexico, Torruco Marqués emphasized.
On the other hand, the general director of Tourist Services of Angeles Verdes, Alejandro Zuñiga Bernal, informed that through the Geointelligence Center, the request for services and the georeferencing of the same is followed up in a timely manner, where the following valuable data was obtained for road tourism:
The intervention of Angeles Verdes took place throughout 800 municipalities located throughout the country, the 5 highway stretches with the highest incidence of services in the range of coverage of Angeles Verdes were: Mexico-Cuernavaca, highway 95D; Guanajuato-Caseta Union de San Antonio, highway 45D; Cuernavaca-Caseta Paso Morelos, highway 95D; Toluca-Mexico Cuota, highway 15D; and Guanajuato-Irapuato, highway 45D.
The hours with the highest demand for attention, according to the service schedule of Angeles Verdes from 8 to 20 hours are: 24% from 16 to 18 hours, from 14 to 16 hours 21%, from 12 to 14 hours 19%, from 10 to 12 hours 14%, from 18 to 20 hours 12%, from 8 to 10 hours 8% and only 2% in the 20 hours.
During these periods of attention, the assistance request with the highest incidence (27%) is derived from tires, from a flat tire to changing the unserviceable tire, 26% of requests are due to engine component failure, while the cooling system recorded a request for attention of 18% and the electrical system 17%.
Zúñiga Bernal added that other frequently made requests are vehicles without fuel in 6%, failures in the transmission 4%, and in the suspension and brake system 1% respectively.
As for the second action of renovation of the Green Angels instructed by the head of Sectur, uniforms were delivered to the 724 elements, which have safety elements, such as reflective stripes, better quality footwear suitable for field service, and representative elements such as serial number and personal identification data of the bearer, such as name and blood group, which allows tourists to identify the Green Angels on the roads.
Torruco Marqués reiterated that Sectur makes available to travelers the 078 speed dial number, where emergency calls are received and tourist information is offered to domestic and foreign visitors, as well as the free download of the Ángeles Verdes App.
