Mexico’s Tourism Reaping Hard-currency Highs this Year

The Mexican travel industry, the country’s third-biggest source of income, reached a new milestone in March this year after netting over $1 billion worth of revenues for the first time ever in just one month, the nation’s Tourism Department revealed earlier this week.

From January to March this year, tourism raked in $2.9 billion, up 14 percent compared to the first quarter of 2003.

The Aztec nation was visited by 5.2 million tourists in the first quarter of 2004 for a solid 14.6 percent spike from the same span of time the year before. Border crossings soared 23 percent in that same period.

Average spending per foreign tourist rose from $690 to $724 during a single stay.

Cruise passengers that landed in Mexico shelled out $127 million in the first quarter of the ongoing year, up 5.3 percent from the first three months of 2003.

As striking as it might sound, though, the number of foreign visitors didn’t surpass 2.1 million visitors, a similar figure to last year’s first quarter.

According to Mexico’s Central Bank, the country’s tourism balance stayed in the black in the first quarter of 2004 with a $1.4 billion surplus, up 18 percent from the same period of time in 2003.