Mexico Tourism Report Q3 2007

Q107 Arrivals Fall

Q107 tourism figures released by the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) indicated that total tourism arrivals declined by 3.69% year-on-year in this period, to 5.3 million visitors. This bears out our expectations that the Mexican tourist sector would remain under pressure in 2007, owing to concerns about the security situation (particularly in the more violent US-Mexico border area) and confusion over the impact of the new US WHTI regulations. From January 2007 these require US citizens travelling to Mexico to carry passports if travelling by air. Americans travelling by land and sea will not need a passport until June 2009.

However, sectoral analysis of these arrival figures demonstrate some more encouraging trends. The main decline in arrivals was demonstrated by border tourists (fronterizos) who stay only one night in the border area. These arrivals declined by 21.67% y-o-y in Q107, to 1.7 million. However, incoming tourists beyond the border actually increased by 8.27% y-o-y, to 3.58 million. This implies that people may be confused about the WHTI and that as a result they have not been crossing the border for shopping excursions or weekend trips. However, those who are going beyond the border have been increasing again since Hurricane Wilma in 2005, indicating that this type of tourism is recovering.