México Logged 57.9% Less International Tourists in February

Caribbean News…
13 April 2021 8:06pm
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Caribbean News Digital Newsroom

Mexico received 57.9% less international tourists last February than in the same month of 2020, going from 3.77 million to around 1.58 million travelers due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported this Monday that the main decrease, of 69.8%, was in tourists arriving by air, who in February of the previous year represented around 1.86 million people and in the same month of 2021 were only 561,955 travelers.

Border tourists decreased by 46.4% year-on-year in February to 888,826 travelers.

The decline is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a disease that has so far caused 2.28 million infections and more than 209,000 deaths in Mexico, one of the most affected countries in the world.

As a result of this health crisis, Mexico lost 66.1% of its foreign exchange income from tourism in February compared to the same month in 2020.

International travelers left 799 million dollars in the country in the second month of 2021, while in the same month of the previous year they spent 2,358.1 million dollars.

Average spending per tourist dropped from US$289 in February 2020 to US$235 in the second month of this year.

On June 1, 2020, the so-called "new normality" began in Mexico with a phased and very cautious economic and social opening after two months of a sanitary emergency that paralyzed non-essential activities.

The Mexican tourism industry, which contributes 8.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP), will not fully recover until 2023, according to estimates by Miguel Torruco, Secretary of Tourism.

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