Mexico City - Last November Mexico received 7.6 million international visitors, representing an increase of 6.6% over the same month in 2014, with foreign exchange earnings being $1.386 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism (SECTUR).

The latest figures released by the Mexico Tourism Sector’s National System of Statistical Information (DATATUR) indicate that 0.5 million more people visited the country compared to November 2014. The agency noted that the foreign exchange earnings represented an increase of $53.8 million compared to November last year, which is a 4% increase. The total foreign exchange earnings from January to November amounted to $15.537 billion, an increase of 7.8 percent over to the same period in 2014.

According to statistics from the agency within SECTUR's Planning and Tourism Policy Sub-Secretariat, the travel trade balance with respect to international tourists for November last year was $481 million, 11.5% above what was recorded in the same month in 2014.

"The balance accrued for tourism in Mexico in the period January-November amounted to $6.420 million, up 10.9% over the first eleven months of 2014," the agency reported in a statement.

Foreign tourist arrivals, the main component of international visitors, rose 14.2% in January-November 2015, compared with the same period last year, and of the total of these tourists, 85% arrived by air and 15% by land.

Meanwhile, the cross-border tourist arrivals grew by 4.3% over the same period in 2015, compared to the previous year, and of that total, 83% came by car and 17% on foot.

For the same period, spending by those who travelled by car reached 619.3 million dollars, representing 86.1% of the total expenditure for cross-border tourism in Mexico.

The arrivals of US tourists by air represented 57.2% of all international travelers, while for the Latin American – Caribbean region, the country with the highest number of arrivals was Colombia, with 367,000 visitors, representing an annual increase of 25.5%.

Between January and November 2015, the airports receiving the largest number of international passengers were Cancun, with almost 6 million travelers; Mexico City, with 3 million passengers; Los Cabos, with 1.1 million people; Puerto Vallarta, with 1 million visitors; and Guadalajara, with 700,000 passengers, which represents 90.1% of the total.

Americans who came by air recorded an increase of 16.7% in the January-November 2015 period, totaling 7.5 million passengers, followed by the Canadians, who registered an increase of 4.8% with 1.5 million passengers whose main destination was Cancun.

The hotel occupancy rate in the group of 70 resorts during the period from January to November 2015 was higher by 2.50% than over the same period last year climbing to 59.6%, according to DATATUR figures released by the Tourism Ministry.