Mexico Hopes to Catch Bigger Travel Bucks this Year

Mexico is licking its chops as it sets aim at roughly $11.5 billion worth of tourism profits that could end up in the country’s coffers by the end of the ongoing year, Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo said.

“The local tourist sector could finish 2004 with a 14 percent increase,” Mr. Elizondo told attendants to a seminar entitled “Tourism, Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development” held recently in Spain’s Barcelona.

”Nevertheless,” he added, “it’s going to be tough to beat the volume of money remittances sent by Mexican nationals living in the United States and that have turned out to be the second-best income source for Mexico, only trailing behind the country’s oil cash.”

Money remittances could peak $15 billion this year as the U.S. economy continues to pick up steam.

Mr. Elizondo also noted that the local leisure industry has bounced back from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred in the Unites States nearly three years ago.

A press release issued by the Mexican Tourism Department highlights that the travel sector is back in track after snaring some $4.7 billion in the first five months of 2004, up 14.8 percent from the same span of time the year before.

The number of tourists that visited the country between January and May this year reached 8.4 million in all, an 11.7 percent spike from the amount chalked up in the first five months of 2003.

As many as 3.3 million tourists came to Mexico aboard cruise liners, a 1.9 percent upturn from the same five-month period of 2003. These deluxe vessel passengers forked over $205 million in the Aztec nation.

Hotel occupancy, for its part, averaged 58.1 percent in that five-month stretch, up nearly 3 percent from 2003.