By: MP News Staff

The news in Mexico is all good on the tourism front in 2008. Despite widespread negative media coverage of battling drug lords and corruption, it looks like tourists aren’t being scared off. Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism expects an investment of more than $3 billion from the private sector in this industry in 2008.Sources inside the Secretary of Tourism added that the Government considers that during the six-year term of President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), Mexico will receive investments for $20 billion to boost up tourism activity. The Government spent some $490 million during the first 11 months of 2007 in the industry.

Of this amount, $142.5 million were from the Secretary of Tourism’s programs with states and municipalities, another $108.4 million from the National Tourism Development Trust and $150 million from the Mexico Tourism Board.  Those are some big numbers that even bad press may not dent.

Mexico has also begun to build programs around the unprecedented beauty and wonder of the country’s extraordinary cultural history. The Mexican government plans to spen $5 million on promoting tourism in what has been termed the Ruta Maya project. This encompasses a “path” that follows the steps of the Mayan people and their lasting archeological sites. The “ruta” spans across the states of Chiapas, Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo. For the die hards, it also technically stretches through all of Belize and Guatemala and a portion of Honduras. A collaboration agreement with the government of Yucatan and the Mexico Tourism Promotion Board was also signed in order to develop the Mayan archeological zone into a tourist product.

Only time will tell, but it looks like 2008 will be a record-setting year for tourism in Mexico.