Number of foreign tourists who arrived in Mexico amounted to 30,597,000 by the end of September, 6.8% higher than the 28,629,000 visitors registered in the same period last year, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI, in Spanish) and historical data released by the Bank of Mexico (BdeM).
Meanwhile, foreign revenues by international visitors during their stay in the country were 16.656 billion USD, 4.5% above the 15.937 billion from last year’s January-September period. The revenues during this period refer to the expenditure of foreign tourists with overnight stays in the country (tourists) and without overnight stays (travelers).
Since October, the government body INEGI became responsible for campaigning and promoting the evolution of tourism in Mexico. INEGI highlighted that the number of foreign tourists who entered the country in September was of 2, 909,000 people, a 14.9% decrease in comparison to the previous month, which registered the arrival of 3,419,000 tourists.
The decline follows a trend in which August is considered a vacation period; while September, together with October and November, are part of the low-season quarter of the year.
For the July-September period, just over 9, 972,000 foreign tourists arrived in the country, which meant a 5.9% increase compared to the third quarter of 2017, when there were 9,408,000 arrivals.
In 2017, Mexico became the sixth most visited country in the world with 39.3 million international visitors.
Meanwhile, INEGI reported that 1,420,000 Mexican vacationed outside of the country in September, while in August, the number was 1,749,000 tourists. The expenditure generated by Mexicans who traveled abroad during the month of September was 834.4 million USD.