Mexico Predicts 52 Million Tourists for 2012 after Strong 2011

The Mexico Tourism Board is predicting 52 million tourists will visit Mexico in 2012 after a strong 2011 that saw the country recover from the effect of negative media coverage of the drug wars and crime. Hotels in many of the top tourist destinations -- from Cancun to Los Cabos -- saw a significant increase in occupancy compared to last year's winter break.

Following the launch in September 2011 of a $25 million advertising campaign, SECTUR, the Mexican Ministry of Tourism, reported that the number of air arrivals in December 2011 was up 13 percent compared to the same period in 2010.

More than 1.07 million international travelers visited Mexico in the last month of 2011, a record for December. In addition to an increase of visitors from the U.S. (10.6 percent) and Canada (9.1 percent), Mexico received significant year on year increases from Spain (6 percent), Italy (10.5 percent), Argentina (21.4 percent), and France (12.4 percent).

A key focus for the Mexico Tourism Board in 2012 will be to capitalize on, celebrate and promote the start of the new Mayan calendar -- with a strong awareness campaign aimed at promoting travel to the five states that comprise the Mayan World, including Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas and the Yucatan.

This further reinforces the Mexican government's goals of aggressively driving a diversified tourism strategy to achieve its goal of ranking amongst the world's top five tourism destinations by 2015.