Despite Woes, Mexico Dominates Travel Survey

Mexico claimed four of the top 10 international travel destinations in Travel Leaders’ 2009 Travel Trends Survey. The survey lists the top 10 international destinations for the remainder of 2009 based on actual bookings.

Travel Leaders asked U.S. travel agents to name up to five top destinations they were already booking. The top 10 international destinations for the rest of 2009 are as follows:

• CRUISE – Caribbean;
• Cancun, Mexico;
• Riviera Maya, Mexico;
• CRUISE – Europe (Mediterranean);
• London, England;
• Montego Bay, Jamaica;
• CRUISE -Mexico;
• Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and
• Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

This is a positive sign for Mexico, which has seen a dramatic decline in tourists this year in the wake of the drug cartel crisis and the country’s struggles with the H1N1 epidemic. The number of visitors to Mexico is expected to drop off by a third as compared with last year, according to a report released last month by World Travel & Tourism Council.

But Mexico’s high rankings in the Travel Trends survey suggests that it might not be so long before the country again records the tourist numbers it saw in 2008: 22.6 million with nearly a 6 percent increase from the prior year, according to the WTTC. In 2008, Mexico was the tenth most popular tourist destination in the world, according the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

The bottom line is that Mexico will probably remain a good deal for tourists until it returns to such great heights.

Photo by eralon (Via Creative Commons)