Mexico a holiday hot-spot for Latin Americans.
Travelers from Colombia are flocking northwards to enjoy their vacations in Mexico, according to figures released by National Immigration Institute (INM).
In the first six months of the year the number of visitors from Colombia was 124,033, an increase of 27% over last year, making it the fifth most important source of foreign visitors. It was previously in seventh place.
Brazilian visitors were also up, registering 139,108, a 6.3% increase, which pushed that country into fourth place from fifth among the top markets for Mexican tourism.
Since 2009, when immigration processes were changed, Latin America has become a gold mine for Mexico’s tourist industry.
Adam Brauten of the tourism consultancy Boutique says Mexico has become “the king” in the Latin American region for the number of Latin American visitors it receives.
The massive increase of Colombians is attributed in large part to improved air connections.
Although Argentina remains among the top 10 countries sending tourists this way, the numbers dropped 13% in the first half of the year, a result of the slowing of its economy, says Francisco Madrid, director of the school of tourism at Anáhuac University of the North.
Venezuela dropped out of the top 10 although visitors from that country were up a whopping 35% to 65,305.
But Madrid forecasts that the numbers from Venezuela probably won’t continue to be as strong owing to the country’s structural problems.
Other countries in the top 10 of sources of visitors are the United States, in first position with 57.6% of the total, Canada with 15% and the United Kingdom with 2.8%.
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