Tourism to Canada will decrease by 45% – Luces del Siglo

• The Canadian government's decision to impose visas on Mexican tourists will have a brutal impact on the decline in travellers.

Arely Sanchez / Correctional Agency

MEXICO CITY – The Canadian government's decision to impose visas on Mexican tourists may have as brutal a decline in traveler numbers as it did when it was first imposed in 2009.

According to figures from Canada's International Travel Survey, when it took this measure in mid-2009, Mexican arrivals fell by 37.3 per cent, but in 2010 the decline continued and reached 45 per cent.

It is worth noting that in 2008, the country attracted the largest number of visitors from Mexico in its history, with 257,000 Mexicans arriving that year.

A year later, the number of arrivals had fallen to 161,200 people, and by 2010 it had fallen to 115,900 Mexicans.

Currently, the flow of Mexican tourists to Canada is more than double what it was in 2008.

At the end of 2023, some 595,537 Mexicans arrived in the North American country, an average of 49,628 per month, but with a noticeable peak in the months of April, July, August and December.

According to Robin Ingle, general manager of Ingle International, a company that specializes in insurance, medical care and assistance for students and travelers, Mexicans coming to Canada today are upper-middle-class and upper-class people and families who want a different experience or are looking for work in that country.

He considered it now possible that there would be very significant declines this year.

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the new visa imposed will only affect 40 percent of Mexican tourism travelers.

However, Engel acknowledged that the Canadian government has created a simpler visa process based on those used in the past.

“The eTA system has become a global system adopted by governments to track border crossings and pre-approved travellers,” he commented.

Figures from Destination Canada, the tourism promotion organization in the country, reveal that the seasons when Mexicans travel to that country are summer, when thousands of young people arrive at summer camps to study English and French, as well as the end of the year. year.

Of the total Mexicans who travel to Canada each year, nearly 9 percent do so over Easter, who will now be most affected by the new visa requirements.

Last year, 55,859 Mexicans traveled to Canada in April for the Holy Week and Easter holidays. Another 42,000 traveled during March.

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