Mexico saw a surge in national and international tourism in 2023, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and driving revenue to new highs.Â
The head of the Tourism Ministry (Sectur), Miguel Torruco Marqués, said that enhanced air connectivity has been instrumental in increasing tourism, and boosting its economic benefits. Â
How many passengers traveled by air in Mexico?
Between January and November 2023, 108 million passengers traveled in Mexico on national and international flights. Of this figure, 58.2 million passengers traveled on domestic flights, representing a 12.6% increase over the same period in 2022 and a 19.1% increase over figures registered in 2019.
Meanwhile, 19.5 million foreign visitors entered Mexico for tourism or business, an increase of 5.8% compared to the same period in 2022, which registered 18.7 million entries.Â
How many tourists stayed in hotels?
From January to November, Mexico saw over 78 million tourists check in to hotel rooms, a staggering increase of 59.6% compared to the same period of 2022. Â
Out of the total number of tourists staying in hotels, 58.2 million (74.4%) were Mexican nationals and 20 million (25.6%) were foreign.
Hotel occupancy in beach towns was up 2.7% from January to November 2023, with some 135,695 occupied rooms.Â
The destinations that saw the greatest number of occupied hotel rooms were: Playacar (83.5%), Akumal (81.2%), Cabo San Lucas (76.8%), Cancun (74.9%), Nuevo Nayarit (72.9%) and Puerto Vallarta (71.5%).
Meanwhile, city destinations saw 122,999 occupied rooms during the same period — a jump of 1.9% compared to 2022.
How much revenue did international tourism generate?
The foreign currency earnings from international visitors between January and November 2023 amounted to US $27.4 billion — 9.8% more than in the same period of 2022. This figure also exceeds by 24.1% the revenue recorded between January and November 2019, which was US $22.9 million.Â
Meanwhile, the average spent by international tourists who traveled to Mexico by air from January to November 2023 was US $1,127.
In a statement, Torruco estimates that expenditure from international visitors will amount to US $30.9 billion this year.
Mexico News Daily
Great to see the recovery and onward and upward from here. Also very positive to see the big increases in domestic travel. All good signs.