In October, total expenditure from international visitors amounted to US $2.05 billion, 13% more than that registered in the same month of 2021, according to INEGI (the National Institue of Statistics and Geography).

INEGI announced in September that over 36.8 million tourists and visitors spent US $16.48 billion in Mexico in the first seven months of the year. Data from the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) published in December shows revenue from January to October exceeded the same period in 2021 by 49.2% and increased 11.6% compared to the same period in 2019.

In turn, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) reported that Mexico ranked 29th in international tourism spending last year, a figure representing a 19-point rise from 2018 — before the COVID-19 pandemic — when Mexico came in 40th in the world.

The WTO ranking means that in terms of international tourism spending, Mexico has fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, along with countries such as Portugal, Serbia, Seychelles and Romania.

In a statement, Mexico’s Minister of Tourism Miguel Torruco said he wanted to remind people that “the potential of a nation should not be measured by the number of tourists but by the foreign funds brought in [to the country].”

He added that the WTO data also puts Mexico as the second-most-visited destination by international tourists in 2021, just behind No. 1-ranked France. In 2019, Mexico was the No. 7 most-visited destination by international visitors.

According to data reported by INEGI early in December, in October 2022 more than 5 million people entered the country, of which more than 3 million were international tourists. This figure represents a growth of 15.5% compared to the same period of 2021 and a whopping 44.5% compared to 2020.

Mexico’s tendency to grow goes in hand with the WTO’s regional data which shows that Europe and the Americas have reported the best tourism results for 2022. Furthermore, tourist arrivals in the Americas could climb to 63% or 80% of 2019 levels by year end.

In a global context, there are strong signs of recovery in the international tourism industry, with foreign visitor arrivals worldwide reaching 57% of pre-pandemic levels in the first seven months of 2022, according to WTO. An estimated 474 million tourists traveled internationally over the period, compared to the 175 million in the same months of 2021, the trade organization said.

With reports from El Economista and La Jornada