Mexico´s GDP Jumped in 2004 by 20.5 Percent through Trade, Restaurants and Hotels

Mexican trade, restaurants and hotels generated a record-setting gross domestic product index as it grabbed 1.4 billion pesos in 2004 and slashed off over a fifth of the country´s total GDP.

Mexico´s leisure sector swung for the fences in January and came out with a tape-measuring dinger as it raked in more than $1 billion worth of revenues, up a blistering 15.4 percent from January 2004, the country´s Tourism Department informed this week in a press release.

The Aztec nation welcomed 1.8 million tourists in January, up 10.1 percent from that same month a year ago. Out of that total, little more than one million visitors came from other parts of the country, while the remaining 728,000 sunbathers hailed from across the border.

The report also indicates that cruise liners chipped in nearly 878,830 passengers all through January, up a walloping 23.2 percent from the same month of 2004. These tourists shelled out $53.6 million during that span of time.

A grand total of 260,000 visitors with $147 million in their pockets are expected to come to Cancun during the oncoming Holy Week festivities, pushing up hotel occupancy to 95 percent during that brief span of time, local hoteliers believe.

As we speak, hotel occupancy is in the neighborhood of 85 percent, with as many as 49,000 tourists staying in 23,000 hotel rooms. However, tourism officials in Cancun are confident the week ending on March 27 could bring much higher rates.

Some entrepreneurs are counting on an inflow of 113,000 national and foreign visitors that could fork over $64 million during the weeklong festivities and shoot up occupancy to a staggering 95 percent, with local travelers taking up 30 percent of the total.