Mexico

Mexico is the third most visited country in the world since pandemic began

Despite coronavirus, Mexico was the most visited country in Latin America, reports the World Tourism Organization.

Photo by: Mariamichelle vía Pixabay

By Denisse Marina 2021-02-17T23:00:00+00:00

One of the sectors most affected by the coronavirus pandemic is, without a doubt, tourism. Due to the above, it is not surprising that travel has collapsed in 2020 worldwide. However, Mexico has been one of the countries with the most moderate fall among the most visited places in the world.

As reported by the World Tourism Organization, Mexico remains the most visited country in Latin America in 2020 (as it was in 2019). In fact, it became the third most visited destination worldwide during the pandemic year, despite losing 46.5% of its visitors.

As for the other countries, they have lost a much higher percentage, an example is China, which had 84% fewer tourists than in 2019, this is followed by Thailand with 79.4% fewer visitors, Spain with 76.1% and the United States, who stopped receiving about 72% of foreigners .

Which were the most visited countries in the world during 2020? In order: Italy, France, Mexico, United States, Russian Federation, Spain, Poland, Austria, United Kingdom and Germany. While of the countries in the Americas, Mexico surpassed its northern neighbor, the United States and Canada. Here you can see the graphs:

Another interesting fact that UNWTO noticed, was that Mexicans will always choose Mexico as a destination to visit instead of other countries: beach destinations are the most popular, the top 5 of these are: Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit and Mazatlan.

It is estimated that a rebound for tourism will soon be seen in 2021, they suspect that this will occur in the second half of that year. However, they clarify that it will take several years to return to 2019 levels. "Tourism has gone back 30 years" stated the UNWTO in its annual report.