Mexican Official Says Country Among Main Tourist Destinations Least Affected by Covid-19

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  The head of the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of Mexico, Miguel Torruco Marqués, pointed out that, proportionally, for every one hundred thousand inhabitants, the country registers the lowest number of Covid-19 cases among some of the nations most visited by tourists. Nevertheless, it lags behind several of the major developed countries.

According to the expectations of what will be the World Tourism Organization (WTO) ranking of the countries that received the most tourists in 2020, Mexico is in position number nine in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Torruco Marqués recalled that the crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic drastically affected the tourism industry around the world, which will cause changes in the list of the ten nations that receive the most tourists. Thus, according to preliminary data from the WTO at the end of 2020, Mexico should rise from seventh place (which it occupied in 2019) to third, passing Russia, Poland and Austria.

Secretary Torruco Marqués added that, regarding the number of deaths caused by Covid-19, Mexico is in fifth place, along with France, within the list of the ten tourist powers, with 99 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, below countries like the United States, which registers 105; Spain, 108; the UK, 111; and Italy, with 125 deaths.

In this sense, he recognized the teamwork carried out by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Health, so that Mexico is the leading country in Latin America in the application of the vaccine against Covid-19.

He argued that both agencies correctly and expeditiously implemented the guidelines given by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which will give his country an advantage in terms of tourism and help a faster recovery of the sector.

“This is in addition to the different hygiene-sanitary prevention protocols that we have designed for the tourism industry since the beginning of the pandemic, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the invaluable support of the private sector, which have been a model for Latin America. Now, the application of the vaccine comes to close the circle to be at the forefront in tourism ”, concluded secretary Torruco Marqués.

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