Covid-19, boom in Mexico of trips to the USA for the vaccine

by time news

The Confindustria of Mexican tourist transport is dealing with an unexpected phenomenon in the midst of a pandemic.

According to a report by the National Council of Tourism Enterprises (CNET) and the Center for Tourism Research and Competitiveness of the University of Anáhuac (Cicotour) between March and May 2021, the trips of Mexicans to the United States tripled, almost one million .

In the previous three months, similar trips had not reached 400,000. According to the report, the explanation for the unexpected boom lies in the pandemic and the vaccine. Trips are organized only to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Cicotour’s director, Francisco Madrid, confirms this analysis “If we compare March, April and May with the previous quarter, we notice a significant change. This difference is represented by vaccination tourism, because there were no other substantial reasons. Furthermore, the confirmation of this thesis comes from a lot of information received from airlines and travel agencies, vaccination coverage statistics for Hispanics in the United States and a low average traveler expenditure as they are shorter trips ”.

The travel boom in the United States coincided with a time when vaccination against Covid-19 in Mexico was slowing down: registrations for people over 50 did not open until April 28.

The government had planned to vaccinate 15 million over 60s and all health workers by the end of March, but the deadlines have been extended until May.

And in May the record number of air tourists of the year was recorded: 383,107.

In total, 325 million dollars were spent on these trips.

A sector that has favored many sectors with all-inclusive packages including air, hotel, car and vaccine at costs between $ 600 and $ 1,000.

Among the destinations: Texas, Arizona and Louisiana first, and then California, Nevada or Florida.

The growth in travel due to vaccination has given some oxygen to a sector that has been badly battered by the pandemic.

The number of Mexicans vaccinated in the United States could be almost double as not all trips made by car on the border strip were taken into account in the report.

Mexico is heading towards a third wave and the Mexican Confindustria has estimated that nearly 800,000 tourism jobs were lost in 2020.

The country has returned to the level of daily cases recorded in February, when it had emerged from the most critical point of the health crisis. Two days ago 12,800 cases of Coronavirus, a figure that had not been reached in the last five months, and 233 deaths. . In the metropolitan area of ​​the Valley of Mexico, on the other hand, the increase in the number of beds occupied by Covid-19 patients went from 1,600 to 2,500 in one week, or increased by 55% in just seven days.

The only solution lies in the vaccine and the government of López Obrador continues with the operation. 630,000 daily doses with more than 53 million vaccines of the 70 million doses received. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 2.6 million people have been infected and at least 235,740 have died from the disease. However, Mexico remains the fourth country in the world with the highest number of coronavirus deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and India.

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