China to be honored guest at 35th Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato
Foreign
Tourists Increase Their Expenditures during the First Half of 2008
Mexico
Secretary of Tourism, Rodolfo Elizondo Torres
announced that between January and June of 2008, tourism in Mexico brought
in $5.136 billion dollars, an increase of 7 percent from the same period the
previous year.
Elizondo Torres also
explained that based on the most recent data on international travelers from
the Bank of Mexico, 11.5 million foreign tourists arrived during the first six
months of 2008, an increase of 4.6 percent from the same period of 2007.
The
Secretary emphasized during the inauguration of the 2008 World Tourism Forum in
Mexico City, that even though there will be a complex international economic
situation during the next three months, up until now tourism has been a
profitable source of income for Mexico.
“These
figures allow us once again to report that during the first semester of this
year tourist activity was constant and was not affected by problems facing the
airline industry or the slowdown of the U.S. economy,” said Elizondo Torres.
The
minister added that the average expenditure of travelers during the first six
months of this year was $800 dollars, a record for a semester.
He
also explained that the balance of tourism maintains its positive figures in
the first six months of 2008, with a total of $3.256 billion dollars, an
increase of 11.3 percent from the same period of 2007.
