A critique of tourism policy and planning in Mexico - Essay Example

Contextually, US visitors to Mexico continues to be the highest contributor to the country’s tourism sector along with significant raise in the figure of visitors from Europe, South America Canada and other different regions of the entire globe (Visa, 2013). At the same time, travel and tourism in the year 2011 generated $ 142 million of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that was larger than any other sector operating within the country. Accordingly, more than 6.3 million people or individuals are directly or indirectly engaged in the travel and tourism industry in Mexico and significantly contributed in poverty mitigation of the country (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2012).

During the global economic downturn, unemployment rate was augmenting throughout the globe. However, the travel and tourism industry in Mexico was able to provide additional jobs to more than 40,000 employees in the course of global recession that occurred in the year 2008. Thus, the paper intends to identify the issues and challenges faced by Mexican tourism in the current context. Furthermore, the paper makes valuable recommendations for resolving the challenges or issues faced by the tourism segment in Mexico and attract more tourists in the country.

Tourism in Mexico accounts nearly about 13% of its total GDP. However, there are certain crucial issues and challenges that deter travellers from visiting Mexico. Contextually, increasing crime, political unrest, drug violence and threat of terrorism are some of the major issues and challenges confronted by Mexico that act as an obstacle to the tourism industry of the country (Forbes.com LLC, 2013). All these issues and challenges significantly influenced the tourism in the country at large.

Moreover, health concern in recent times has also emerged as one of the critical issues deterring tourism