The Mexican Business Travel Industry: A Healthy Business Travel Industry is Driving Growth in all Regions of Country

The Mexican economy boasts a highly fluid and sophisticated economy with a free flow of goods, services and business travelers throughout the country’s various regions and states. Business travel itself is a huge driver of the country’s economic growth and health – accounting for $263.2 billion Mexican Pesos (about $15 billion) in 2015.

A recent study sponsored by InterContinental Hotels Group, The Mexican Business Travel Industry: Business Travel’s Impact on Jobs and the Mexican Economy in 2015, found that business travel within Mexico is big business in terms of jobs created, revenue generated, industries affected and taxes collected through business travel.

The study found that in 2015, there were more than 17 million domestic business trips taken around Mexico and another 587,000 business trips into Mexico from international destinations. The vast majority of these trips – 92 percent – were overnight trips. While the volume of trips is impressive in and of itself, the impact that business travel has on the overall Mexican economy is even more remarkable in terms of impact to the nation’s GDP, economy and jobs created.

What the Mexican Business Travel Industry study found was that business travel accounted for $263 billion MXN (about $15 billion) in travel and meetings spending, supported 907,000 business travel industry jobs, and generated $154 billion MXN ($8.7 billion) in direct revenue while adding $273 billion MXN ($15.5 billion) – 1.4 percent – to Mexico’s economy.

According to the report, the $263.2 billion pesos in business travel spending in 2015 resulted in $273.5 billion pesos in Mexican GDP. Essentially, every single Mexican Peso spent on business travel activity generated about $1.04 in GDP. Business travel was responsible for about 1.4 percent of Mexican GDP in 2015.  Of the $273.5 billion total, $154.1 billion accrued directly to the businesses that served business travelers or meeting attendees. Their supply chain beneficiaries received an additional indirect contribution of $84.2 billion. The downstream beneficiaries of spent business-travel supported wages received an induced contribution of $35.2 billion.

What the report illustrated is that business travel in Mexico drives business growth throughout the nation, and serves as a strong indicator for the overall health of Mexico’s economy and the state itself. The study also found that business travel throughout Mexico generates enough in taxes to educate over 1.1 million Mexican students every year. Indeed, a healthy business travel industry is a net positive for Mexico, the nation’s economy, the different regions and states throughout the country, the sponsoring companies and the individual travelers themselves.