From January to March 2022, Mexico registered the arrival of 5.02 million international tourists by air and the main countries from which they came were the United States, Canada and Colombia, the Ministry of Tourism of the Mexican Government reported this Sunday.
In a statement, the agency indicated that this total represents an increase of 138.5% compared to the same period in 2021, but still 7% away from reaching the arrivals registered in 2019.
“The main countries in international tourist arrivals by air to Mexico in this period were: the United States, Canada and Colombia, with a cumulative of 3.88 million, this is 131.8% more than in 2021, but 2.1% to reach the captured in 2019,” said the head of the agency, Miguel Torruco.
He specified that during the first quarter of the year, the arrival of US citizens by air “reached 3.18 million, 101.2% more than in 2021, when 1.58 million arrived.”
Meanwhile, he said that the arrival of Canadian tourists was 510,811 tourists, 1,445% higher than 2021, while the arrival of Colombian tourists during that period was 185,078, which represents an increase of 216.8% compared to 2021, when they arrived 58,416 tourists.
Last Friday, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported that Mexico’s tourist activity rebounded by 19.7% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of the previous year, which was still strongly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. coronavirus.
In the comparison between consecutive quarters, the tourism GDP for the October-December 2021 period rose 4.3% compared to the July-September period, in seasonally adjusted figures.
Mexico had 31.9 million international tourists during 2021, 31.3% more than in 2020, and foreign exchange income from international visitors was 19,795 million dollars.
For this 2022, the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) estimates the arrival of more than 40 million international tourists.
The tourism GDP of Mexico, which until before the health crisis due to the coronavirus represented 8.6% of the national GDP in 2019, closed 2021 at 7.1% and in 2022 it will do so at 8.3%, according to government estimates.
Even so, Mexico was the third most visited country in the world in 2020, a temporary phenomenon that is attributed to flexible health measures in the country’s tourist areas.
In 2021, Mexico was consolidated as one of the 10 most visited countries in the world, with more than 45 million international tourists who left 24,563 million dollars, an annual growth of 9%.
