Travel to Yucatán is up as the tourism board SEFOTUR is reporting strong numbers for 2019. Overall growth increased by 13.5%, and 27% in April alone. Arrivals at the Mérida International Airport has May as the best month in 50 years of history, according to figures from ASUR.
The statistics were announced by Secretary of Tourism Development for the State of Yucatán, Michelle Fridman Hirsch, as part of a presentation on the results of the tourism promotion work done under her administration to date.
Accompanied by leading industry partners of the Yucatan Tourism Board (SEFOTUR), the Secretary began the presentation with a recap of all efforts undertaken in the past eight months, pointing to the excellent results recorded as evidence of the intensity of the state’s promotional undertakings.
At the end of 2018, Yucatán reported an average increase of 12.6% in overnight visitors, of which, international tourism grew by 35.9%, an important figure for the balance between the national and international markets for the destination.
During the first four months of 2019, the state registered an increase of 90,000 tourists and 51,000 new seats on airline routes. Commenting on the performance of the seven most recently inaugurated air routes, Fridman Hirsch said that “these new routes have shown an excellent performance in occupancy.
“Today, Yucatán is more and better connected with new markets, which has allowed us to increase the arrival of more tourists to the state, so we have worked on strengthening our presence through national and international markets in North America, South America and Europe,” she added.
MICHELLE FRIDMAN SEFOTUR
Regarding the growth of Mérida International Airport, Mr. Hector Navarrete Muñoz, director of Aeropuertos del Sureste (ASUR), commented on growth over the past eight months, noting that it reached 16.41% in April and 18.25% in May (the highest in the airport’s history) and representing an average growth during the Easter holiday season.
According to the official data from DATATUR, Yucatán recorded a 27% increase in the arrival of visitors with overnight stays in April, which means an arrival of almost 100,000 tourists more than the same period last year, reaching a total of 674,263 tourists.
Regarding hotel occupancy, the state has recorded increases every month, despite a 2.4% increase in the number of rooms available. “According to DATATUR, Mérida was ranked first of the top 5 cities with the highest hotel occupancy in Mexico, and under the ‘Yucatán Meetings’ brand, we have strengthened the segment of meetings, which has grown by 31.9% in number of tourists with respect to the same period of 2018,” she Fridman added.
Source: Travel Market Report
