U.S. Travel to Mexico Continues to Improve

Nearly 15 percent more U.S. travelers flew to Mexico in June 2010 than during the same month in 2009, according to recently-released U.S. Department of Commerce figures, demonstrating that international travel to Mexico continues its upward trend.

Now, of course it is easy for a country such as Mexico, which took a major decrease in tourism in 2009, to see a jump from last year. But in light of all the negative media coverage lately, these numbers are still a positive development for a country that some predicted wouldn’t recover for years.

The growth in U.S. air travel to Mexico for the month exceeded that of U.S. international air travel overall, which was 11 percent over June 2009 figures. By comparison, Europe was up 11 percent, Canada was up 9 percent and the Caribbean was up 6 percent for the month.

U.S. air travel to Mexico the first semester of this year was 8 percent over figures for the same period in 2009, the report also revealed. The growth figure exceeds that of U.S. air travel overall, which grew 4 percent during the first semester. By comparison, U.S. air travel to Europe decreased 1 percent, to Canada increased 6 percent and to the Caribbean increased 4 percent compared with the first half of 2009. Roughlly 61 percent of international tourists to Mexico are Americans, according to Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat (Sectur).

More than 2.8 million Americans arrived in Mexico by air during the first half of 2010, which is nearly as many people that visited the entire Caribbean, according to U.S. Department of Commerce figures. More than 14 percent of all U.S. international air travel is to Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Commerce figures reinforce Mexican government reports. According to Sectur, the number of international tourists reaching Mexico by air experienced a 35.2 percent increase in June 2010 compared with the same month last year, marking an impressive first half of the year for the Mexico tourism industry.

Visit www.visitmexico.com.