Foreign Visitors to Mexico Increased by 10 Percent in 2014

The number of foreign visitors in Mexico increased by 10.1% between January and October this year, with the total amount of visitors reaching 10.5 million tourists during the period.

The Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) reported in a statement that according to the National Migration Institute (INM), this figure exceeds the 9.6 million international visitors recorded during the same period in 2013.

The foreign exchange earnings from international visitors showed a positive development, reaching $13.34 billion in the tenth month of this year, according to the Bank of Mexico (Banxico). All this, the institution explained, is equivalent to 16.7% more than the $11.254 billion recorded during the same period last year.

In October, there was an inflow of $1.96 billion, $818 million of which came from tourists who came by air, which is an increase of 13.0% over October 2013. The central bank said that the average expenditure of travelers who came by air was $949.1, a figure that is 10.1% higher than the figure for January to October the previous year. In the first 10 months of 2014, tourist arrivals reached 23.2 million, a figure that is 18.6 % higher than arrivals in the country in the same period in 2013.

According to the Migration Policy Unit (PSU) of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), the main source of tourists coming to Mexico is the United States, with 5.9 million visitors between January and October. They are followed by Canadian visitors with 1.3 million and travelers from the UK with 389,000.

As for tourists coming from emerging economies, the Tourism Ministry noted that tourist arrivals from Colombia increased by 24.7%, China by 24.4%, Venezuela by 9.1%, while for Brazil there was a 13.7% increase over the period January-October 2013.