The travel alerts issued by the United States, which warn of violence in some tourist destinations in Mexico, have not affected the arrival of foreigners at the moment, the Secretary of Tourism of Mexico, Miguel Torruco, told Efe on Monday.
Torruco met this Monday in the Canadian city of Toronto with representatives of Canadian travel agencies and airlines to present the destinations in Mexico for tourism, such as the designation of “magical towns” for 132 locations or the construction of the Mayan Train.
In an interview with Efe, Torruco explained that the Mexican tourism sector is in full recovery after the pandemic and that, although he expects that in 2022 Mexico will receive 42.3 million foreign tourists, 6% less than in 2019, economic income will increase by 6%.
The Secretary of Tourism said that “for now, the issue of travel alerts from the United States so far is not affecting tourism in Mexico, which is why international tourism continues to increase.”
In fact, from January to August 2022, 13,757,000 foreign tourists arrived in Mexico by air, 64.7% more than in the same period in 2021 and 4.4% more than in the same months in 2019.
And the United States continues to be the main origin of international tourists, followed by Canada and Colombia. From January to August of this year, the three countries provided 10,514,000 tourists by air to Mexico, 54.3% more than in 2021 and 11.9% more than in 2019.
Of this number, 8,925,000 were American tourists, 37.5% more than in 2021.
“The issue of insecurity does not happen in one day, nor has it been provoked in the last four years of this government. It has been throwing up a series of problems that have been overcome”, declared Torruco.
“The National Guard was created, with special training, with more sophisticated equipment, and we are already beginning to see a downward trend in many of the crimes. We are on the right track,” he added.
The Mexican secretary also said that, for the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, “tourism is a tool for social reconciliation.”
“It is an activity that is being underpinned for the first time and efforts are being focused for the benefit of the local population. It was very unfair to have tourist paradises coexisting with hells of marginalization”, he reasoned.
Torruco referred to the fact that, in the past, 92.5% of international tourism was concentrated in six tourist centers (Cancun, Mexico City, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, and Monterrey ) despite the fact that in Mexico there are 254 tourist areas.
“It is fair that the economic benefit of this wonderful activity is also for the local population,” he said.
Finally, Torruco declared that he is not worried that the rapid increase in inflation and the cost of living in Canada, the United States, or Europe will affect the Mexican tourism sector.
“Mexico has good prices and good service for all prices,” he concluded.
The travel alerts issued by the United States, which warn of violence in some tourist destinations in Mexico, have not affected the arrival of . . .
