US$20.3 billion in international visitors: Sectur

From January to July, the country’s foreign exchange income from international visitors amounted to 20,300.5 million dollars, which represented an increase of 7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and 33.3 percent compared to the same period in 2020, the year of the pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) announced on Monday.

According to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the agency reported that in the first 7 months of the year, a total of 25 million 825 thousand international tourists entered the country, which represented an increase of 5.3 percent compared to what was reported in the same period of the previous year.

“Foreign currency income from international tourists in the first seven months of the year was 18.765 billion dollars, which represented an increase of 6 percent compared to the same period in 2023; and it also exceeds by 34.8 percent the foreign currency of the same period in 2019, which was 13.924 billion dollars,” he said.

At the same time, he noted, 14 million 376 thousand inbound tourists arrived in Mexico by air, which represents an increase of 3.7 percent compared to the same period in 2023 and is 18.5 percent higher than those captured in the same period in 2019.

“Foreign exchange earnings from airborne tourists from January to July 2024 increased by 5.9 percent compared to the amount collected in the same period in 2023, reaching 17.035 billion dollars,” Sectur said, while specifying that the amount is 37.9 percent higher than that reported from January to July 2019.

Regarding the average expenditure of air travelers, Sectur stressed that this amounted to 1,184.9 dollars, a growth of 2.1 percent compared to the same period in 2023 and which exceeds by 16.3 percent the average expenditure of 1,018.6 dollars recorded in the first seven months of 2019.

He added that the income from cruise ship passengers during the months of January to July of this year amounted to 498.3 million dollars, which represents an increase of 36.4 percent compared to what was collected in the same period in 2019, when 365.2 million dollars were recorded.

The agency added that in the first 7 months of the year, the balance of international visitors was 14,454.1 million dollars, a figure 2.3 percent higher than that recorded in the same period of 2023 and which also exceeds by 50.3 percent the balance of the first seven months of 2019.