Thousands of United States citizens flocked to Mexico in May as high Covid-19 vaccination rates in the U.S. spurred international travel.
Just over 970,000 Americans arrived on flights last month, a record for May, according to the Center of Research and Tourism Competitiveness at Anáhuac University.
The figure accounted for 83% of all international air arrivals last month and represents a whopping 4,117% increase compared to May 2020, when just 23,000 U.S. tourists came to Mexico. It’s 9% higher than May 2019, when 891,000 United States tourists flew into the country, and 13% higher than the same month of 2018, when U.S. visitors numbered 857,000.
Virginia Messina, senior vice president at the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and a former Mexican government tourism official, said that high vaccination rates in the United States are aiding the recovery of Mexico’s tourism sector.
About 63% of adults in the United States have received at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, while the figure in Mexico is about 35%.
Messina said flight bookings show that foreign arrivals to Mexico during the summer will be close to 2019 levels.
“Looking at air reservations into the country between June and August of 2021 compared to [the same months of] 2019, we’re more or less at … 86%, which is very significant. When we look at different regions of Europe, for example, [flight] reservations are about 40% [of 2019 levels],” she told a press conference.
International travel to Mexico has been encouraged by the absence of restrictions for arriving visitors, who don’t have to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test result or go into mandatory quarantine.
Source: El Economista
