Tourist currencies hit record levels in the first quarter

Foreign travelers who vacationed in Mexico spent 9.5% more than in the first three months of 2023.

During the first quarter of the year, the total expenditure made by international tourists who arrived in Mexico set a new record, exceeding 9,171 million dollars, an increase of 9.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and a unseen value from which the INEGI has a record.

The level reached in the economic benefit generated by foreign tourism is the highest for a first quarter since records have been recorded and is 42 percent higher than that registered in 2019, prior to the coronavirus health emergency that collapsed the global tourism industry. .

The figures also show a total recovery, for the first quarter, in the volume of tourists arriving in Mexico: more than 11.2 million travelers chose a destination in the country to vacation during the first three months of the year, 1.2 percent more than reported in 2019, the best record so far in terms of the flow of international travelers.
One of the factors that has supported the arrival of foreign tourists to Mexico is the additional offer that Mexican and international airlines have provided to connect to the country.

In that sense, Mexican airlines such as Volaris, Viva Aerobus and Aeroméxico are those that have contributed the most to generating connections to and from abroad, particularly to the United States.

While the number of passengers transported by foreign airlines on international routes grew at a rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter, Mexican airlines have transported 17.9 percent more tourists to routes outside the country.

Airlines like Volaris have seen an opportunity to maintain profitability in their operations by placing greater capacity on international routes, to the detriment of domestic flights with little demand.

“We continue to redeploy significant capacity to the US market and expect it to make up around 45 percent of our network this year. Currently, we are in the acceleration phase of much of this additional capacity, but we continue to see progress in attractive markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Texas,” said Holger Blankenstein, vice president of Volaris, regarding the results of the first quarter of The airline.

The tourism and arrival indicators of international travelers in the first quarter of the year also show greater growth due to the Easter holiday period, which this year occurred during the last week of March.

During March, the number of international tourists who came to Mexico for vacation increased 10.6 percent annually, this according to the International Traveler Survey (EVI) published on May 10, by the INEGI.

In this way, during the third month of the year, just over 4.1 million foreign tourists entered Mexico, a figure 396 thousand higher than that reported during the same period of the previous year.

In March, not only was there a larger flow of international tourists in Mexico, but they spent even more: the income of foreign currency from foreign tourists grew 11.2 percent compared to the third month of last year, so the spill amounted to 3 1,257 million dollars only in the third month of the year.

In the spending area, international tourists who entered the country by air had even greater growth in spending, with a growth of 12 percent in the third month of the year, compared to March of the previous year.

During the last year, the Mexican peso has revalued against the US dollar by 4.5 percent, a factor that explains the greater spending of foreigners when vacationing in Mexico.

In that sense, the average expenditure of foreign tourists during March was 788 dollars, a figure 0.5 percent higher than the same month last year.

Airport groups and airlines have felt the impact of the grounding of at least 45 aircraft in the Mexican air fleet, as they report double-digit drops in the volume of passengers served during the fourth month of the year.

During April, Volaris was the airline with the greatest impact, with a drop in the number of domestic travelers of 23.1 percent annually in the fourth month of the year.

“In preparation for the peak summer season, we have increased capacity in the cross-border market between the United States and Mexico, at the same time we have reduced capacity in Central America,” said Enrique Beltranena, CEO of Volaris.

In addition, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP) reported a decrease in national traffic of 10.1 percent annually during the fourth month of the year, mainly caused by the problem related to the Pratt & Whitney inspection.

Source: elfinanciero