“As a sign of the international investor’s confidence in our country, the Grand Island Cancun project will become a reality in Quintana Roo, this is one of the largest investments of the last 30 years in the region”, said Federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués.
According to the official, the three thousand-room project, with an investment of one billion dollars wil be carried out in two phases, and phase one will be fully operational by the year 2022.
The second phase of Grand Island Cancun, is expected to begin operations in 2024, and the project will be financed by Bancomext and two foreign banks that reiterated their interest in investing in Mexico.
The project will allow the creation of 7,500 direct jobs during the contruction phase, and 20 thousand direct and indirect jobs once the project starts operating.
The project also includes the construction of the largest Convention Center in Cancun, that will open in 2022, with an available space of 10,000 square meters.
On Wednesday October 16th, during the morning press conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Torruco Marqués highlighted that from January to August 2019, 29.8 million international tourists arrived in the country, 7.6% more than in 2018, with an expenditure of 17.1 billion USD, that is 12.3% above the previous year.
He explained that the average expenditure of international tourists is 525.80 dollars per person, 5.5% more than in 2018, giving a positive balance of 10.6 billion US dollars, 34.7% more than the previous year.
“In terms of employment expectations for the end of the third quarter of this year, we’re looking at 4.3 million, that is, 4.4% more than in 2018, as 181 thousand new jobs have been generated in the tourism sector so far this year”, Torruco said.
Foreign direct investment in the tourism sector
On the other hand, the expectations of foreign direct investment in tourism adds up to 624 million US dollars, 3.0% more than the total investment in the country, of which 25% corresponds to investment in hotel infrastructure.
By the end of October 2019, a figure of 43.3 million international tourists is expected to be reached, 4.7% more than in 2018, resulting in 24.4 billion US dollars in expenditure from international visitors, which is 12.13% higher than the previous year.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom