After four years of steady growth, Mexico dropped from sixth to seventh place last year in international tourism rankings.
Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco said yesterday the decline was the first since 2013, when Mexico dropped from 13th to 15th place in 2013 during the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency.
Mexico was edged out of seventh place in the 2018 World Tourism Organization ranking by Turkey.
Torruco warned that Mexico could see its position decline yet further given strong tourism numbers in the United Kingdom and Germany.
According to statistics gathered by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), Mexico welcomed nearly 41.5 million international tourists last year.
Torruco said that Mexico ranks 15th in the world in terms of tourist spending. The tourism secretary has said previously that increasing that figure will be a top priority of the government’s tourism agenda.
Torruca said on Tuesday that the government would also place a strong emphasis on sustainable tourism in order to increase the economic spillover to benefit local populations.
The tourism chief was in Cancún for the third forum on the creation of the 2019-2024 National Development Plan, with which the federal government hopes to tackle such diverse issues as insecurity, equal employment opportunities, corruption and sustainable development. The forums are open to citizens to bring public participation in the creation of the plan.
Source: El Universal (sp)
