Tourism grows in Merida by 7% in 2019.
More tourists and more overnight stays, but just a day’s visit. In 2019, Mérida reached record numbers in terms of the number of tourists and hotel accommodations thanks to the pull of the foreign public, whose visits grew by 13.1% compared to 4.7% by national travelers. . These are data from the Hotel Occupancy Survey prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which represents 69.9% of the average annual occupancy of hotel rooms in Mérida on weekends. Five years ago this percentage stood at 57% and despite the increase, the stay of these people is still less than two days.
According to the INE data, Mérida received a total of 262,800 tourists in 2019, of which 21.1% were foreigners. In fact, this is the fastest growing group, specifically 13.1%, from 49,358 international travelers of 2018 to 55,842 in 2019 (6,484 more). National travelers, meanwhile, increased 4.7% and in total reached 206,958, which is 9,464 more than in 2018.
The city received 262,800 travelers who made 402,128 overnight stays. The average annual occupancy rises to 70% but the stay is less than two days.
The increase in the number of tourists has also been reflected in the rise of overnight stays. These people made a total of 402,128 accommodations in the hotels of the city, which represents a growth of 7.4% compared to 374,417 in 2018 and also a record figure. The average occupancy of the whole year on weekends has also increased, from 57% registered in 2015 to 69.9% in 2019. However, the stay has hardly moved: of the 1, 4 days from then it has gone to 1.7 in December 2019.
The good health of the emeritense tourism has been verifiable since 2015, according to the data provided by the INE. Since then, the number of travelers arriving in the city has grown by 32%, mainly due to the increase in international tourism, which has increased one point more than that of national origin.
