Tourism in Mexico exceeds pre-pandemic levels with 10.26 million foreign visitors in 6 months

International tourism in Mexico has finally surpassed pre-pandemic levels, after 10.26 million foreign visitors arrived in the country in the first half of 2022, the Ministry of Tourism reported on Friday, July 29.

International arrivals from January to June 2022 increased 1.5% compared to the 10.11 million tourists who arrived in the country in the first half of 2019.

Most of these foreign visitors come from the US as tourists.

The number of Americans arriving by air in the first six months of the year was 6.66 million; that is, 19.1% more than in the same period in 2019.

It’s unclear whether the war in Ukraine may have influenced some Americans’ decision to vacation closer to home.

The challenge for Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations — the Caribbean beaches — is no longer COVID, the spread of which Mexico has never imposed any bans on flying, testing, or the use of masks. Rather, they are the masses of smelly sargassum that have accumulated at some points on the coast.

Sargassum wasn’t much of a problem on Mexico’s Caribbean coast before it started washing up on beaches in 2014 and 2015. It looks like 2022 is going to be a particularly bad year.

Mexico’s economy as a whole grew 1% in the second quarter, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported on Friday, July 29.

Economic growth for the first half of 2022 now amounts to 1.9%, after an expansion of 0.9% in the first three months of the year.

The economy recovered 5% in 2021 after a sharp decline during the coronavirus pandemic. But growth is expected to slow down due to high-interest rates and an economic recession in the United States, which is by far Mexico’s largest trading partner and affects directly the Mexican economy.

TYT Newsroom