In 2021, Mexico became the first travel destination for American tourists

During 2021, Mexico was the first tourist destination for Americans, as reported by the Secretary of Tourism (Sectur), Miguel Torruco.

In a statement from Sectur, based on information from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Torruco explained that Mexico ranked first in the share of trips made by Americans, receiving 58.6% of the total.

This, according to the statement, contrasts with 4.3% of trips made to Canada and 37.1% of total trips from the United States to other regions of the world.

In addition, U.S. citizens increased their arrivals to Mexico by air by 100.9% compared to 2020, going from 5.16 million trips in 2020 to 10.77 million in 2021, which means that it is 0.3% to reach 2019 levels.

Likewise, in 2021, arrivals by air by US tourists accounted for 72.7% of total arrivals.

In 2021, the favorite places of American visitors were Cancun (Quintana Roo), Los Cabos (Baja California Sur), and Mexico City.

“This confirms the forecast that the reactivation of the tourism industry would occur with short-distance travel, as is the case with destinations in Mexico that are on average four hours by flight from cities in the United States,” the instance explained in the statement.

According to the most recent data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), Mexico received 65.1% more international tourists in February than in the same month of 2021, still marked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mexico went from receiving 1.59 million foreign tourists in February 2021 to 2.62 million in the second month of this year.

However, if the figure is compared to 3.76 million in the second month of 2020, there is still a substantial fall of about 30.3 per cent.

The main uptick occurred in tourists arriving by air, who in February 2021 represented only 698 thousand people, while in the same month of 2022 there were about 1.78 million travelers, a 155.5% increase.

On the other hand, border tourists fell 5.9% year-on-year in February to 836,474 travelers.

The data reflect the impact of the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease that so far has left more than 5.73 million infections and 323,949 deaths in Mexico, one of the most affected countries in the world.

In February 2022, total tourist spending soared by 164.7% year-on-year, going from 799.1 million dollars to 2 thousand 115.6 million dollars.

If we compare last February's figure with that of the same month in 2020, the current figure is less by about 220 million dollars.

The average spending of each tourist rose year-on-year from $235 in February 2021 to $457 in the second month of 2022, up 94.5%.

For 2022, the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) estimates the arrival of more than 40 million international tourists.

Mexico's tourism GDP, which until before the coronavirus health crisis represented 8.6% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019, closed 2021 at 7.1% and in 2022 will do so at 8.3%, according to government estimates.

Even so, Mexico was the third most visited country in the world in 2020, a short-term phenomenon attributed to flexible sanitary measures in the country's tourist areas.

Mexico consolidated itself in 2019 as one of the 10 most visited countries in the world, with more than 45 million international tourists who left 24,563 million dollars, an annual growth of 9%.

With information from EFE

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