Mexico’s tourism sector has seen impressive job growth since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global travel industry in 2020, according to the latest employment figures.
The Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) reported this week that 4.831 million people were employed in the tourism sector in the first quarter of 2024, a 7.7% increase over the then-record tourism employment figure in the first quarter of 2020. This figure represents 9% of total employment in Mexico in the first three months of the year, Tourism Minister Miguel Trucco Márquez noted.
The tourism sector continues to drive Mexico’s economy, with revenues expected to reach new heights in 2023. (Martin Zetina/Cuartoscuro)
In real terms, the number of people employed in the tourism sector in the first three months of the year increased by 344,009 compared to January-March 2020.
The tourism job growth comes on the back of a steady recovery in international travel to Mexico following the pandemic: More than 42 million international tourists are expected to visit Mexico in 2023, a 10% increase over the number of international travelers who visited the country in 2022.
The national statistics institute (INEGI) reported earlier this month that 4.1 million international tourists visited the country in March, up 10.6 percent from the same month last year.
Sectur also reported that employment in Mexico’s tourism sector increased 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2023.
On an annual basis, tourism employment in the first quarter of 2024 increased 3.3% compared to the first quarter of 2023, adding 153,333 jobs.
From a report by Forbes magazine:
