Yucatan breaks tourism record in 2019: received more than 3.2 million visitors

-2.8 million people arrived in the state by air and more than 400,000 on cruise ships.

-The number of overnight tourists increased by 15 percent, surpassing the two million barrier for the first time in history.

-The entity was located in the first three places of growth in the item at the national level, generating a spill of more than eight thousand 264.9 million pesos.

Mérida, Yucatán, January 22, 2020.- 2019 was, without a doubt, a year of radical changes for tourism in Mexico, where Yucatán, thanks to the strategies promoted by Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal through the Ministry of Development Tourist (Sefotur), knew how to cope with this situation to place the state as the favorite destination in Mexico.

The unparalleled beauty of the natural, archaeological and colonial attractions of the entity, as well as its cultural events and the wide tourist offer, in the period January-August 2019, ranked fourth nationally as the destination with the highest growth in tourists with overnight. In the national ranking, it ranked 8th in terms of the number of visitor arrivals.

Likewise, through Sefotur, the infrastructure, tourist product, service and training in the attentions of the receiving port of cruise ships were improved: Progreso. This was achieved thanks to the support of the Governor and is bearing good fruit, since suffice it to say that from January to December 2019, 470,418 maritime arrivals were registered, which meant an estimated economic benefit for these ships of 18,820,550 million dollars.

The cultural activities and strategies implemented by the agency, led by Michelle Fridman Hirch, also achieved a large increase in various areas of the state's tourism industry. An example of this is the meeting segment, which during the period from January to December 2019 reported a total of 122,733 participants in the state.

This meant an increase of 46.9 percent compared to the 83,542 individuals recorded during the same period in 2018. In this area, from January to December 2019, 228 events were held in Yucatan, including congresses and conventions in Mérida.

In that period, the Mérida International Airport had a movement of arrivals and departures of two million 790 thousand 649 people, which represented an increase of 13.8 percent compared to the previous year. This figure is the result of the expansion in air connectivity of this terminal with six new national routes to the main destinations in Mexico, which are also connection points with other countries, according to the DataTur Tourist Statistics Information System.

And the good numbers continue, because in relation to the accumulated indicator, also from Datatur, from January to December 2019, the arrival of overnight visitors to the main tourist centers of the state showed an increase of 15 percent compared to the same period of 2018.

In other words, last year a total of two million 45 thousand 123 tourists were reached, while the average hotel occupancy in the state reached 55.5 percent; or, 0.5 percentage points above the global of this indicator observed in 2018.

This same item, in 2019, generated an estimated economic spill of eight thousand 264.9 million pesos, which is other words is a boom of 17.13 percent compared to the same period of 2018.

Another of the great achievements that Yucatan has had was the capture of more than 11 billion pesos in private tourism investment, a fact that translates into hotels, restaurants and various establishments and, as announced by the president, is not only favoring the capital, but to the entire territory.

At the end of 2019, the figures were also notable, since during the last holiday season of the year, hotel occupancy in Mérida was 61.7 percent, 3.1 percentage points higher compared to December 2018, with 58.6 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of occupation during the past month reached 56.5 percent, that is, an increase of 2.4 points compared to 2018.

In this same indicator, the number of overnight visitors in the main tourist centers of Yucatan stood at 182 thousand 337 people, which means an increase of 9.9 percent compared to the same month of 2018.

Valladolid was also put on the radar, as it registered 45.8 percent in this item, a figure 7.5 percentage points higher in relation to the same month of 2018, with 38.3 percent. Other cities that also had significant increases were Chichen Itza, with 62.6 percent; Uxmal, with 29.4 percent, and Izamal, with 50 percent.

Thus, Yucatan continues with a firm step to position itself as the best tourist destination in Mexico, since the sum of the arrival of tourists to the state exceeded the goal of more than 3.2 million visitors in 2019. But, in addition, in this 2020 the Yucatecan capital It is among the most searched vacation sites on Google, which bodes well for a better bonanza this year.