Foreign investment in Mexico’s tourism sector hit US $3.4B in 2022

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico’s tourism sector reached record levels in 2022, totaling US $3.4 billion, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marqués said in a statement on Sunday.  

Last year’s figure exceeds the 2019 FDI in the tourism sector, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the recorded figure was $1.1 billion. It also exceeds the country’s past record of $1.6 billion in 2017. 

Torruco said that the increase “reflects the confidence that Mexico offers to international investors and businessmen, who contribute to strengthening the tourist infrastructure of different destinations in the country.”

This “detonates the economic flow and per capita spending of tourists, so that the benefits permeate communities, in compliance with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s instruction to make tourism a tool for social reconciliation.”

During the fourth quarter of 2022, FDI in the tourism sector was $187.1 million, down from the previous three quarters of the year. In the first quarter of 2022, a record-breaking $2.6 billion was registered in FDI in the tourism sector due to “extraordinary FDI movements” related to the restructuring of the airline Aeroméxico as it emerged from bankruptcy.

The tourism sector represented 9.8% of total FDI in Mexico in 2022, contributing to an overall increase of 12% compared to 2021. Last year, overall FDI in Mexico reached its highest level since 2015.

According to the Tourism Ministry (Sectur), most tourism FDI from 1999-2022 has been invested in furnished homes and apartments with hospitality services, followed by hotels, airlines and other tourist transportation, as well as airport administration.

The state that most benefited from FDI in the tourist industry in the fourth quarter of 2022 was Baja California Sur, with $67.9 million, or 36.3% of the country’s total. Nayarit received the second most, with $32.8 million, or 17.5% of the total. 

They are followed by San Luis Potosí, ($27.4 million), or 14.7%; Mexico City, ($18.4 million), or 9.9%; and Yucatán, ($10.3 million), or 5.5%. 

The United States registered the greatest outflow of FDI in Mexico’s tourism sector for the fourth quarter of 2022, at $157.4 million, followed by Canada at $39.3 million. The next biggest contributors were France ($12.8 million), Colombia ($9.6 million) and Germany ($2.1 million). 

With reports from EFE