I will take a wild guess that many of our readers are part of the 10.4 million tourists estimated to be visiting Mexico during the last two weeks of 2011, as recently announced by Mexico´s Secretary of Tourism Gloria Guevara Manzo.
According to a press release by Marca País-Imágen de México:
The Mexican newspaper Excelsior reported that 10.4 million national and international visitors will vacation in Mexican tourist destinations between December 16, 2011 and January 2, 2012. This statistic represents a 4 percent increase over the same time period last year. Approximately 60 percent of these tourists will vacation in Mexico during the final week of 2011.
Attracted by warm climates, exotic beaches, amazing deals to luxury spots, and the overall fiesta atmosphere of an Año Nuevo celebration in Mexico, these holidays are an ideal time to visit some of Mexico´s hottest spots.
In fact, Forbes magazine recently included Mexico as one of the “Best Last-Minute New Year’s Eve Destinations” claiming “My top pick is Mexico. There are festivities in the streets with firecrackers, fireworks, and sparklers. At midnight everyone shouts ‘Feliz año nuevo!’ It’s fun to participate in the local traditions and superstitions, such as eating twelve grapes as the clock strikes midnight on the 31st – and you get a dozen wishes for 2012 as you eat each grape.”
It might be too late for some of us to plan our New Year’s trip to Mexico, but we can definitely take this as a cue to start planning ahead for the many festivities which await the much-anticipated 2012 holiday season and its end-of-the-world predictions which are sure to motivate a flock of people to the epicenters of the Mayan worlds-the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. Many of the major Mayan cities are getting ready for the anticipated 52 million tourists expected to visit during 2o12, more than half of the amount of visitors to the whole of Mexico in a given year.
But for those of you that are there now, or for those of us who want to live through them vicariously, there is the hashtag #10milliontourists we can follow and share through.
If you are in México, please let us know!
