The Covid-19 pandemic caused severe losses throughout the economy, with the tourism sector being one of the most affected due to the confinement and closure of non-essential activities. However, as time has passed and progress has shown in the vaccination campaigns, we can observe a recovery in the tourism industry.
Despite the complications experienced in these last two years, Mexico managed to position itself as the 7th place in the world in attracting tourist currency during 2021, adding 19,796 million dollars and advancing ten positions in this period, as in 2019 was in 17th place.
According to INEGI and Banxico, although foreign currency capture from international travelers hasn’t reached the pre-pandemic level (24.6 billion dollars in 2019), the amount represents a growth of approximately 80% of the foreign currency received in 2020. In addition, the average tourist spending reached an all-time high: $567, an increase of 14% since 2019.
The Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR), Miguel Torruco Marqués, has shared that it’s estimated that foreign currency earnings for this year will exceed 24.6 billion dollars, which would already exceed the pre-pandemic level.
As a whole, it’s expected that this year there will be an economic spill of 35 thousand 185 million dollars thanks to air transport, the Secretariat commented in January that there were already 190 thousand 513 scheduled flights from January to December, 22.5% more than in 2021; The destinations with the highest demand and spillover are Cancun, Mexico City, Guadalajara, San José del Cabo and Puerto Vallarta. Last year, international air visitors came mainly from the United States (76.2% of the total), Canada (3.4%), Colombia (2.9%), Brazil (2.1%) and Spain (1.3%).
On the other hand, there are also good prospects for the cruise industry. Mexico is the most relevant country in Latin America for this sector, SECTUR contemplates that this year 6 million cruise passengers and 2,313 cruise ships will arrive in the country, contributing 480.4 million dollars in foreign currency, 286.2% more than in 2021.
Just from January to March 2022, 1,607,000 passengers and 781 cruise ships have arrived, almost all of them to the ports of Cozumel, Majahual, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Progreso.
In general, the tourism sector presents a positive outlook, from January to December 2021, 31 million 876 thousand international tourists arrived (+31.3% than in 2020), to which the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) concluded that Mexico was the second most visited tourist destination, only behind France. For the first quarter of 2022, 8,576,000 visitors arrived (+48% compared to the same period in 2021), which continues to show a notable recovery path.
As far as foreign direct investment (FDI) is concerned, in 2021, tourism investment (TFDI) reached 2,054.9 million dollars, an all-time high. It represented 6.5% of total FDI, participation that hadn’t been seen since 2012. According to SECTUR, the tourist branches in which the most investment was made were: Apartments and houses furnished with hotel services (61.5% of TFDI), Hotels with other integrated services (24.2%), Regular air transport on national airlines (5.2%), and the Administration of airports and heliports (5.1%).
The hotel sector is especially important since it contributes 28.7% of the Tourism GDP. In 2021, hotel occupancy was 41.4%, 15.3 percentage points higher than in 2020. The states with the highest amounts of hotel FDI are Nayarit, Mexico City, Baja California Sur, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Guerrero.
At the end of April, the American company Wyndham revealed that between 10 and 20 hotels would be installed in Mexico this year.
Currently, there are several tourism projects from government and private organizations on the doorstep that are only waiting for environmental authorization. They consist in 9 projects for 643.1 million pesos distributed in Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Baja California, Oaxaca and Coahuila.
In them, it´s planned the preparation of land for the subsequent construction of ordinary edification works (boutique hotel, housing, chapel, medical center, university museum, central square, walkways, green areas) and the expansion of infrastructure in the port from Mazatlan, Sinaloa to receive more cruise ships and ferries; as well as the construction of a Convention Center in Oaxaca to promote business tourism and conventions.
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