Tourism direct GVA (2024) | Tourism direct employment (2024) | Travel exports (2024) |
|---|---|---|
8.7% of total GVA (up 0.2 percentage points since 2023) | 7.4% of total employment (up 0.2 percentage points since 2023) | 52.3% of total service exports (down 2.3 percentage points since 2023) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: National Tourism Policy Framework 2024-2026
Responsible government agency: Ministry of Tourism
National tourism budget: MXN 1.77 billion (2025)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Strengthening destination management and local capacity – Providing technical assistance and guidance for destination plans while undertaking capacity building for local DMO functions and creating tools to understand visitor pressure and potential carrying capacity.
Enhancing sustainability and climate resilience – Introducing sustainability standards and good-practice protocols and integrating climate risks in tourism planning, in co-ordination with necessary authorities.
Increasing the quality and competitiveness of the tourism offer – Working with tourism businesses to expand quality and certification programmes while providing ongoing support for regulatory improvement and compliance.
Tourism is an important contributor to the Mexican economy. In 2024, tourism directly contributed MXN 2.7 trillion to the Mexican economy, accounting for 8.7% of total GVA, above the pre-pandemic share of 8.6%. The sector directly employed 2.9 million people and accounted for 7.4% of the total workforce, which is above the 6.6% share in 2019. Travel exports reached USD 33.0 billion in 2024, representing 52.3% of total service exports, compared to 54.7% in 2023.
In 2024, Mexico received around 45 million international tourists, on par with pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and representing a 7.4% increase from 2023. The top markets were the United States (31%), Canada (6%) and the United Kingdom (1%). Growth continued in 2025, with inbound arrivals increasing by 6.1%.
Domestic tourism is an important contributor to the tourism sector. In 2024, Mexico recorded 108.1 million domestic overnight trips, which is 6.3% above the level in 2019.
The Secretariat of Tourism within the Ministry of Tourism is responsible for formulating, leading and evaluating national tourism policy, and co-ordinating with other ministries and levels of government. This includes promoting innovation in the sector, improving the quality of tourism services and the competitiveness of national tourism, and promoting strategies that articulate governmental priorities and contribute to the sustainable and inclusive growth of tourism. Framework agreements and ongoing co-operation with state and municipal authorities enable destination planning and management, and the ongoing implementation of sustainability and quality schemes and professionalisation of the sector. FONATUR is Mexico’s agency for the development of tourism investment.
Three co-ordination mechanisms contribute to formulating strategies and actions to achieve comprehensive development of national tourism activity. These mechanisms are:
The Executive Tourism Commission, an inter-ministerial body whose purpose is to fully understand and resolve tourism-related matters.
The Tourism Advisory Council, whose purpose is to suggest strategic responses and co-ordinate actions with the agencies of the Federal Government, with the full participation of the public and private sectors, to achieve comprehensive development of tourism activity.
The National Tourism Conference, a co-ordinating body between the three levels of government, oversees policy, planning and programming of tourist activity throughout Mexico.
In the Ministry of Tourism, the Great Council for tourism sustainability has been established. The Council brings together more than 130 participants from across government, international organisations, civil society, indigenous communities, social enterprises, private companies and academia.
The total tourism budget in 2025 was MXN 1.77 billion.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Ministry of Tourism, 2026.
The National Tourism Policy Framework 2024-2026 provides a coherent federal framework for tourism in Mexico and operates within the broader strategic orientation established by the Sectoral Tourism Programme 2025–2030, aligned with the National Development Plan. The Framework aims to strengthen destination planning and management, embed environmental and social sustainability and climate resilience, raise competitiveness through quality standards and digitalisation, promote inclusive benefits and skills, and improve co-ordination and evidence-based policy in Mexico. Issue-specific and economy-wide policies, including on key issues such as climate, mobility, urban development, and culture and heritage, interact with tourism through inter-ministerial mechanisms and co-ordination agreements.
Tourism destination planning and management is a key priority for Mexico. To support destinations, technical assistance and guidance is provided for the development of destination plans along with capacity building for local DMO functions (see box below). These efforts are supported by planning toolkits and analytical instruments to assess visitor pressure and destination carrying capacity, which are being applied on a selective basis according to local needs and institutional capacity to enable destination decision making.
To improve the sustainability and climate resilience of the tourism sector, Mexico has implemented sustainability standards and good-practice protocols and is supporting the integration of climate risks into planning. The distinctive ‘S’ Quality Seal provides recognition for businesses adopting verified sustainable practices and is aligned with schemes like Earth Check and Rainforest Alliance. Tourism businesses that can obtain the “S” badge include accommodation providers, restaurants, airports, convention centres, golf courses and tourism transport operators. Ecosystem-based climate adaptation measures and sustainable tourism spatial planning approaches are being developed and applied through certification processes and selected destination-level initiatives, in co-ordination with environmental and territorial planning authorities to preserve tourist attractions and infrastructure in destinations.
Tourism certification systems extend beyond sustainability and offer an opportunity to improve competitiveness and quality for tourism in Mexico. Quality and certification programmes are being expanded and now include the National Tourism Quality Distinction, accreditation for tourist guides, Treasures of Mexico, sustainability (Distinctive S), hygienic food handling (Distinctive H), modernisation and specialised segments. These are being integrated into a national Tourism Certification Portal designed to centralise certification processes, reduce administrative fragmentation, improve transparency and facilitate compliance and quality assurance across different certification schemes. The Portal is primarily intended for tourism businesses and service providers seeking certification, and public authorities responsible for managing, validating and monitoring certification programmes.
Mexico is promoting technological innovation, aiming to meet the needs of increasingly informed and demanding travellers. In addition to providing diagnostics and toolkits to support digital adoption by tourism businesses, work is being undertaken to promote data sharing and the use of administrative data for policy. The DataTur portal has been strengthened to include sections related to tourism regulations, state and municipal tourism GDP, estimates of income and lodging taxes, a national tourist price index, and regional digitalisation of tourist vocation places. This free portal provides users transparent, timely information about the sector for analysis and better decision making. The National Tourism Registry has also been digitalised, providing a consultation tool for tourists to increase certainty and security of tourist services.
Better spreading the benefits of tourism across communities can create a more inclusive sector, including for women and youths. Mexico has developed several initiatives promoting inclusion, including skills partnerships with education and training bodies, support for community-based tourism and updating the National Code of Conduct to Protect Children in Travel and Tourism. The code of conduct is a voluntary sector commitment to prevent sexual and labour exploitation of minors, which has been updated with new guidance and sector agreements.
Many tourism destinations in Mexico continue to face pressure on infrastructure, the environment and local communities. To address diversity and varied governance capacity of destinations, Mexico has developed a common toolbox for destination planning. The toolbox, which acts primarily as a destination planning and governance support instrument, includes a model terms-of-reference; practical guide to integrate sustainability and climate criteria, templates for stakeholder engagement, and a light monitoring, measurement and evaluation framework aligned with national policy objectives. Cross-ministerial inputs are embedded throughout the planning templates and the terms-of-reference, which require destinations to consider transport, environmental, cultural and territorial dimensions. These inputs are incorporated through existing inter-ministerial co-ordination mechanisms and consultation processes, rather than through the creation of new institutional structures.
The toolbox is made available to states and municipalities through existing institutional channels, including inter-governmental co-ordination mechanisms, technical assistance processes led by the Secretariat of Tourism, and capacity-building activities such as workshops and training sessions. In some cases, support from entities such as FONATUR is provided for project identification and evaluation.
Rather than being deployed as a standalone digital platform, the toolbox is integrated into ongoing territorial planning processes, tourism project development, and the preparation of state and municipal Tourism Development Programmes.
The toolbox approach is expected to improve comparability and speed up the preparation of tourism destination management plans across Mexico. The plans are currently being scaled with states and municipalities and embedded in inter-governmental agreements. Future iterations plan to deepen the use of data and integration of climate-risk modules into planning.