Tourism In Mexico Expected To Surge in Winter As Covid Cases Are Dropping Fast

Tourism In Mexico Expected To Surge in Winter 2021 As Covid Cases Are Dropping Fast

Mexico is a country that depends heavily on international tourism for its economy, and officials there are hoping that impressive tourism figures this summer will lead into solid numbers this fall.

They have reason to be confident.

The country’s Ministry of Health recently announced that its COVID-19 stoplight risk map has become much more green and yellow as opposed to orange and red. For the period of Sept. 20 to Oct. 3, four Mexican states will be green, 24 will be yellow, four will be orange, and zero will be red. In comparison, the previous update had included 13 orange states.

covid map mexico
Source: Github

The restrictions that result from those colors gradually become stricter the closer to red a state is. For example, in orange states, many places must operate at between 25% and 75% capacity while those in red states are only allowed to do essential activities.

July was an especially impressive month as far as international visitors to Mexico are concerned as the total number – 3.4 million – was just 19% lower than the corresponding pre-pandemic figure in 2019. However, what most pleased officials there this summer was the $2.1 billion that they spent, which was actually 7% more than July 2019’s foreign visitors had spent two years earlier.

The percentage increases of visitors and spending from July 2020 to July 2021 were, as expected, significant: 143 and 389, respectively. Meanwhile, the 1.4 million passengers who flew from foreign locales into Cancun International Airport in July made that the transportation hub’s busiest month for international transport since February 2020.

Of course, many of the Mexican cities that rely heavily on tourism experience their typical high seasons from the middle of December until the middle of March. Those who work in the tourist industry in places such as those – e.g. Cancun and Cabo San Lucas – are hoping that the COVID-19 situation continues improving between now and then and gives them a significant boost this winter.

But, understandably so, the focus right now is on the fall and making the most of these upcoming months, which they should be able to do.