The Travel Habits of Highly Effective Mexico Business Travelers: Overnight Trips Drive a Booming Market

If the typical Mexican business traveler were to set up an online profile, it might read, “successful, college educated, middle-upper management professional male seeks to contribute to $263.2 billion Mexican peso (MXN) industry through frequent, individual, overnight business trips to the South-Central region of the country.”  Indeed, according to a recent study sponsored by the InterContinental Hotels Group, The Mexican Business Travel Industry: Business Travel’s Impact on Jobs and the Mexican Economy in 2015, the fictitious online profile is an accurate composite of the trends, traits and habits of the typical Mexican Business Traveler.

In 2015, there were a total of 17.2 million domestic business trips taken around Mexico and another 587,000 trips into Mexico from international destinations. As such a large volume of travel would indicate, business travel is a significant source of growth and revenue within Mexico. Over 60 percent of business travelers are men, and the majority of them – 6 out of ten – are college educated. As one might imagine, these successful, college-educated, mid-career professionals spend good money when they travel for business. Most travel – 92 percent – is overnight. The South-Central region of the country – which is home to the capital, Mexico City – is the single largest destination.

Total person-trip volume grew 7.1 percent in 2015 and total spending by business travelers (domestic + international inbound) grew by 9.4 percent. The amount spent per business trip rose 2.7 percent to $11,472 Mexican pesos per trip. Of the total spent per trip, $3,331 MXN was spent on lodging, $3,356 MXN was spent on airfare, $956 MXN was spent on ground transportation, $2,027 MXN on food and beverage in restaurants, $508 MXN on entertainment and $1,294 MXN on shopping and merchandise.

Domestic business travel accounted for approximately 71.4 percent of the total business travel spending in Mexico. A quarter of this travel went to the South-Central region, where Mexico City is located. The other three-quarters of business travel was spread fairly evenly throughout the other regions of the country. 92 percent of business trips were overnight with almost half – 48 percent – lasting between two and three days.

Given the average demographics and length of business trips within Mexico, it is no surprise that the country’s business travel industry is booming. Business travel makes up 1.4 percent of Mexico’s entire GDP, supports 1.2 million jobs and generated $71.2 billion MXN in taxes in 2015.

Mexico is just another example of a country’s economy being driven by business travel. Revenue generated, taxes collected and jobs created in Mexico as a direct result of a robust business travel industry demonstrates the positive impact that business travel can have on a nation’s economy.