MEXICO.- During the first half of this year, Mexico has received 6.9 million international visitors by airplane, a 10.9% increase when compared to the same period last year.

According to the Secretariat of Tourism (SECTUR), with information obtained from a database of the National Institute of Migration (INM), the agency indicated that United States is the leading originator for tourists arriving in Mexico, with around 3.9 million visitors during the year in course.

This figure means an increase of 13.1 percent from the first half of the previous year, when 3.4 million U.S. visitors arrived in Mexico.

The country that sent the second most tourists to Mexico was Canada, coming in at 1.05 million people during the first six months of this year, or 5.9 in percentage terms when compared to the 998,563 visitors during the same period in 2013.

The amount of visitors from the United Kingdom increased by 6.8 percent, with 204,878 tourists, compared to 191,855 last year during the same period.

SECTUR indicated that travelers arriving from emerging economies, such as Venezuela, China, Colombia, and Brazil, also increased during the first half of this year, although no specifics were released.

In 2013, Mexico hosted 23.7 million international tourists in total and was the second most visited country in the American Continent.

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