(From today's Por Esto--high points of the article--my translation) 1.- According to INM, as of the end of November 2008, 13,362 foreigners with valid immigration documents reside in Quintana Roo. 2.- In the period Jan-Nov. 2008, there have been 10 complaints for presumed involvement in human trafficking against Mexican citizens, 2 against Cuban Americans, 5 against Cubans and 2 against "others." 3.- There have also been 87 complaints filed against foreigners, document verification has been carried out in 178 businesses, 20 "shady" businesses (giros negros) and immigration has been denied to 291 foreigners. 4.- In the area of air travel, immigration (tourists) is up 11.5% with 441,786 more people arriving during the same period in 2007. 5.- The immigrant flow in the Cancun airport grew 12% and in Cozumel 2%. 6.- And for via maritime (cruise ships) INM says that during the same period Jan-Nov 2008, immigration was down 23% for the same period in 2007. Cozumel still maintains #1 position in the Mexico for the arrival of international passengers at a port with 42% of the total.
I was reading some of that today in the paper (El Periodico)... it sure is hard for me to believe that there were almost half a million MORE tourists this year than last... Also for your 3rd point... that's just for November or for the year? If just for November they sure have been busy raiding 178 + 20 businesses.
All this data is available on the INM web site. You have to be willing to use M$ Internet Explorer to see it because their web master isn't doing his/her job and making the data available to users on every browser and platform... Here's the link: http://www.inm.gob.mx/index.php?page/Estadistcas_Migratorias
I would bet, based only on instinct, that if the number of foreign visitors is higher than last year that it must have been from the first half of the year.
RG, I would bet that to be correct.....The foreign markets didn't tumble until ours did, and at the first part of last year, the DOW was still above 12,000, and the only thing hurting the US and world economies, were the greedy oil speculators...and they were just beginning.
RG: you said the INM site has the stats. Does it break it down by month? Somewhere in between "no pasa nada" and "the sky is falling" lies the truth. Today's paper said tourism will drop 30% in 2009 and tourism is up for 2008.
From today's Novedades: In spite of the crisis, 12 million tourists have come to Cancun in 2008 as of the end of November when only 11 million arrived in all of 2007.
