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 Business News | September 2005 
Mexico Tourism Industry Forecast
 Mexico Tourism Board
"The Mexican Economy grew strongly in 2004, like it hadn't done since 2000", but the economic performance stayed below its possibilities, commented the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt today. "The economy of Mexico grew strong in 2004 after years of stagnation. The Gross Domestic Product of the emergent country grew in 4.1 percent with respect to the previous year, revealed the governor of the Mexican Central Bank, Guillermo Ortiz," said the newspaper.
Mexico Tourism Industry 2005 forecast is $10 billion. 70% percent of visitors come from the USA, the Mexico tourism board says. Visitors come for the sand, surf, shopping and the Mayan ruins. Too many, it's home. The Mexican Population Council says 8.9 million Mexicans and 14.4 million Americans of Mexican origin live in the USA, together making up 8% of the U.S. population. Mexico is home to the world's seventh-largest hotel industry. 10,400 hotels, or 430,000 rooms.
Mexico Tourism Investment
According to statistics recently released by Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat (Sectur), Mexico’s tourism industry attracted more than US$2.29 billion in new investments last year, representing a 38.5 percent increase over the previous year’s figures.
The Pacific coast state of Guerrero attracted the most investment monies, amounting to US$429.9 million, with the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo close behind at US$427.6 million and the Pacific coast state of Nayarit in third place at slightly more than US$291 million. More than 75 percent of these investments came from Mexican investors, with the remaining from international investors. Mexico currently has 305 projects under construction or renovation. Sectur projects that by 2006, Mexico will have attracted US$9 billion in new tourism investments.
The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states.
Mexico has a free market economy with a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-fourth that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal.
Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Real GDP growth was a weak -0.3% in 2001, 0.9% in 2002, and 1.2% in 2003, with the US slowdown the principal cause. Mexico implemented free trade agreements with Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and the European Free Trade Area in 2001, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements. The government is cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and provide incentives to invest in the energy sector, but progress is slow.
Mexico Grows as an Incentive Destination
Mexico Incentive Destination - Only two non-U.S. cities made the cut on St. Louis-based Maritz Travel's Top 10 List of the most-sought-after incentive and business meeting destinations: The Mexican resort towns of Los Cabos and Cancun.
Based on an annual review of all the year's past, pending and presented business, the list shows an increasing interest in Mexico. Reasons cited include a growing number of all-inclusive resorts, as well as a variety of activities, including adventure-travel. Los Cabos and Cancun also have many top golf courses, new luxury resorts and plenty of rich cultural and historical sites nearby, according to a statement by Alicia Feito, vice president of industry relations for Maritz Travel. Los Cabos ranked third and Cancun seventh.
The Scottsdale/Phoenix area and Las Vegas were the top two destinations on the list. After Los Cabos came Orlando, Florida, San Diego and Chicago. New York, Dallas and Miami rounded out the list, taking eighth, ninth and tenth places, respectively.
Mexico’s 2004 Tourism Numbers Exceed Goals
Mexico well surpasses target of 20 million international visitors and US$10 billion in international tourism revenues. While definitive 2004 year-to-end stats will not be released until late March 2005, projections by Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat (Sectur) reveal that the tourism sector exceeded expectations for growth in 2004 in both the number of international visitors and the amount of tourism revenue they generated.
Mexico received a historic high of 20.5 million international visitors in 2004, up from 18.6 million in 2003 and a half-million more than the 20 million mark the government had set as its target for last year. Sectur expects the number of visitors to exceed 21.5 million in 2005.
These international visitors to Mexico spent an unprecedented US$10.621 billion in 2004, up from US$9.457 billion in 2003 and well above Sectur’s target mark of US$10 billion. Revenues are projected by the Tourism Secretariat to increase in 2005 to US$11.313 billion.
Non-border international visitors to Mexico were reported to have spent an increased average of US$665 per person per visit in 2004. This spending trend is expected to continue, with per-trip expenditures reaching US$683 in 2005, Sectur reported.
The third most important economic activity in Mexico after oil and remittances, tourism represented approximately 8.0 percent of the nation’s GDP last year and is expected to increase to 8.2 percent in 2005.
These record-breaking numbers reinforce Mexico’s position in the world’s top ten ranking of the most popular tourism destinations. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), Mexico ranks eighth in the world in the number of international visitors and tenth in the world in international tourism revenues.
Tourism from Mexico’s North American neighbors represents more than 90 percent of Mexico’s international tourism pie, with 89.4 percent coming from the U.S. and 2.8 percent from Canada, Sectur reported. The European market represents 4.3 percent of international tourism, with Latin America right behind it at 2.9 percent.
According to Mexico’s Central Bank, the tourism industry’s trade balance posted a US$3 billion surplus in 2004, and this surplus is expected to increase to US$4 billion in 2005.
Some 1.759 million Mexicans were employed in the tourism sector in 2004, and this number is expected to grow by 3 percent to 1.810 million by the end of 2005.
According to Sectur figures, 110,810 international flights landed in Mexico in 2004, 12.8 percent more that those registered during 2003. These flights transported 10.88 million international passengers, 15.1 percent more than in 2003. Mexico offers 57 international and 28 national airports.
According to Sectur, in addition to the foreign tourists arriving by plane, bus or car during 2004, some 6.692 million visitors arrived on cruise ships, compared with 5.98 million in 2003, with the US$408 million they spent representing a 17.7 percent increase over 2003 figures. Mexico is the number one cruise destination in the world, with 21 ports on seas such as the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean to choose from.
About the Mexico Tourism Board - The Mexico Tourism Board (MTB) brings together the resources of federal and state governments, municipalities and private companies to promote Mexico's tourism attractions and destinations internationally. Created in 1999, the MTB is Mexico’s tourism promotion agency, and its participants include members of both the private and public sectors. The MTB has offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Latin America. |
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