Foreign Visitors to Mexico Plunge 41% in First Half of 2020

MEXICO CITY (REUTERS) – Mexico received at least 13 million foreign visitors during the first six months of 2020, a drop of 41.2% from the same period last year, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco said late Tuesday, as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the tourism industry.

Torruco said in a statement that the decline in tourists had led to a 51.5% decrease in foreign exchange revenues to $5.786 billion during the January-June period.

Tourism accounts for about 9% of Mexican gross domestic product, but tourists stayed away from foreign countries during the pandemic-triggered lockdown.

(Reporting by Noe Torres, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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