Mexico's Tourist Industry is still booming over the last 4 years.

Mexico is really holding it's own in the Tourist Industry over the last 4 years at a high season occupancy rate of 85% to 90%.

Documentation?

Says who?

That's certainly not what I see when I visit PV. The place was deader than a doornail last spring.

John, you were just in NV. Was it packed?

Hi all - Documentation = Mexican TV station.

Bob, it was busy but not packed. Buses arrived daily with 40 + passengers. The Thanksgiving trip from Ajijic is NOT HIGH season, so I wouldn't expect it to be packed.

The numbers are published regularly in The News, the english language paper from DF. Tourism is doing fine.

Saying "Mexican television" is not documentation.
David tells us where we can look to see the numbers which presumably do tell where the numbers come from. The source is important.

David wrote:
. Tourism is doing fine.

No it isn't.

OK. Pls site your source.

David wrote:OK. Pls site your source.

My source is my own personal observations and conversations with many people in the tourist industry.

Love the new avatar Sies.

The tourism business isn't booming, at least with USA customers since the recession hit & usually it takes a few years to come back fully when the US economy is back. I know this from having worked in businesses in the Caribbean for 28 years. The first thing to go when people struggle is vacations. Possibly there are more tourists from Canada & elsewhere.

The most recent article I could find was from the LA TIMES in October:

"Mexico tourism grows thanks to non-U.S. visitors":
"In the first half of the year, Mexico reported a 77% increase in visitors from Russia, a 61% jump from Brazil and a 38% bump from Venezuela. The number of travelers from the U.S. dropped 1%.

Mexico predicts record tourist visits this year. But it's not because of a surge in U.S. visitors.

Don't get Mexico wrong. U.S. tourists still represent the lion's share of foreign visitors, and Mexico welcomes them and their green dollar bills. But Mexico is reaching out to visitors from countries such as Russia, Brazil, Peru and Colombia after fears of drug violence and the recession reduced U.S. visitor numbers........
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/11/business/la-fi-mexico-tourism-20121011

From personal observations during our last three trips, we feel that it all depends on where one is and how much negative press there has been for a given area. Patzcuaro, Morelia and the rest of Michoacan seem to have been hit hard. Oaxaca and Puebla both appeared to have plenty of tourists. We noticed a real lack of visitors last February in Tlaquepaque but it seemed to have rebounded last August.

Carry Bean wrote:The tourism business isn't booming, at least with USA customers since the recession hit & usually it takes a few years to come back fully when the US economy is back. I know this from having worked in businesses in the Caribbean for 28 years. The first thing to go when people struggle is vacations. Possibly there are more tourists from Canada & elsewhere.

I never said which country the tourists were from. Mexican TV said that the most tourists were Canadian and other foreign countries. The least tourists were from the US.

CG - Thanks for that link.

John:

A correction to your statement. The largest % of tourists are from the US but there has been a slight decline in the overall numbers. The point of the article is that the numbers are rising from other countries and more than offsetting the reduction in numbers from the US.

joec wrote: Mexican TV said that the most tourists were Canadian and other foreign countries. The least tourists were from the US.

Maybe something was lost in the translation.

I'm sures. The News reports that Russians and European visitors represent the highest growth by region but that the USA and Canada provide the most visitors.

[quote="David"]I'm sures. The News reports that Russians and European visitors represent the highest growth by region but that the USA and Canada provide the most visitors. [/quote]

Interesting, David. On our most recent Aeromexico/Air France joint non-stop flight from Paris to Mexico City this past spring, we were amazed at the number of Russian and Eastern European passengers who were on that flight. I would say that they were by far the largest ethnic/national groups on the flight which takes place daily. We were puzzled by this overwhelming group of passengers from Eastern Europe from France to Mexico. An unheard of demographic for flights we have been taking repeatedly for years. Of course, in retrospect, it makes sense as Paris would be a logical takeoff point from Western Europe for Eastern Europeans for Mexico non-stop. Perhaps Madrid and even Barcelona as well. The times they are´a changin´ as Woody would have sung many years ago.

Europeans are, by the way, fascinated by Mexico, and especially pre-Colombian Mexico; much more so in general, than folks from the U.S. or Canada in general. Without stereotyping people, I must say, Europeans seem far more interested in Southern Mexico with its Mayan ruins and Aztec and Toltec history than are tourists from other parts of North America. That is not a value judgment, just an observation; perhaps a shallow and unworthy observation. Who knows.

Dawg:

As you have mentioned any number of times, Chiapas by your reports gets numerous European visitors. For a number of years when we traveled to Patzcuaro, and noticed a good number of Germans or others from Eastern Europe traveling through on motorcycles brought in from Europe. Starting in 2011, the whole scene changed and they seem to have disappeared. In fact. during our last two trips to Patzcuaro (both in August), we have only observed one foreign couple and they were Japanese.

Generally, when I eat breakfast at Salvadors:

1. Russian
1. Germam
1. Englishman
1. Philippino
1. Canadian
2 Americans
1 dog,

Makes for interesting conversation

jrm30655 wrote:Generally, when I eat breakfast at Salvadors:

1. Russian
1. Germam
1. Englishman
1. Philippino
1. Canadian
2 Americans
1 dog,

Makes for interesting conversation

Why don't you try eating with a Mexican?