[cualcrees]

I hope this is the right place to post this, if not, please move it at will.

My family owns a big and very beautiful house in a very popular colonial city here in Mexico (San Miguel de Allende). This city is always filled with American tourists, mostly older people.
We have a business proposition from someone (he's from Mexico city) who wants to rent our house to start a bed&breakfast; so what I'm trying to find out, is if his is a good offer, so i was hoping someone could point me to some statistics regarding tourism from the US to Mexico (or the world in general). How much has the current economic situation affected tourism; what do you expect in the coming years?
We don't want to be greedy and turn down what could potentially be a nice fixed monthly rent just 'cause we think it might be to low and that we could make more money if we run it ourselves.
Are there any charts that show the number of US tourist, year to year, to see what the current trend is?

i'd love to hear your opinions on this!
Thank you!

[Tyler_JC]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Mexico

Tourism in Mexico is a very large industry and one of the largest in the world, it is the number one destination for foreign tourists within the Latin America region, ranking worldwide in the eighth place in terms of the international tourist arrivals, with 21.4 million visitors in 2006. Revenues from international tourists reached USD 12.17 billion in 2006, and Mexico captured 15.7% of the Americas international tourism market share in terms of arrivals, just second to the United States. In 2005, tourism contributed with 5.7% of the country's revenues from exports of goods and services, and represented 14.2% of direct and indirect employment.

The number of tourists visiting Mexico from the United States is HUGE.

However, I would assume that most of those tourists are middle class and could not afford to visit place deep inside Mexico if air fares were to increase dramatically from current levels.

If America slides into a serious recession, I think the number of American tourists visiting Mexico will decline.

That doesn't mean that you are out of luck. If you have a great piece of property, there will people who want to rent it. But just remember that competition will be intense.

[Jotapay]

American tourists still go to Mexico? Just kidding, I've been to Mexico 4 or 5 times, all the way from top to bottom. Great, hospitable people. But I thought the kidnappings, drug violence and especially the bad economy in the USA have cut the numbers quite a bit. I know people where I live (which is a very prosperous state still) are taking "stay-cations" and staying home.

Wait until the depression hits the USA in a year or two and the Cantarell oil field plays out so that Mexico becomes a net oil importer. You will see some real pain then. Better buy a few firearms and big dogs to protect that big house.

[cualcrees]

Thank you for your comments!

[threadbear]

People from Canada are opting to go to Mexico instead of Hawaii, due to cost. Crime could be a huge issue though. It appears Mexicans are hunting Canadians for sport now.

[cualcrees]

People from Canada are opting to go to Mexico instead of Hawaii, due to cost. Crime could be a huge issue though. It appears Mexicans are hunting Canadians for sport now.

Not just for sport; we're stockpiling them for when the post-PO effects hit and food is scarce...

[EnergyUnlimited]

I have good income from tourism (actually I run large B&B on a very atractive land close to beech in Poland).

My customers are mainly (say 90% +) from Poland.

About 30% of them are traveling ca 500 miles one way.
About 50% are traveling 300 miles one way.
About 20% are traveling 150 miles one way or less.

I expect to lose 80% + of customers within next few years, once PO related crisis strikes.

However now everything looks very good.

So for example this year I had a family (father, mom and 18 years old son) who were traveling more than 500 miles one way and yet each one of them came in separate car.

They were not looking very rich either (actually I found later during conversation that they borrowed money to buy 2 of these cars).

All that in Poland, which is much porer than US and where gasoline is in range of $8 per gallon.