Mexico City, July 10 (IANS/EFE) Hotel occupancy in Mexico grew by 6.7 percent in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Secretariat said Tuesday.
On June 30, the average number of hotel rooms rented in the country's 70 main tourist destinations during the first half of this year rose to 194,038, while during the same period in 2012 an average of 181,787 rooms were rented.
The beach destinations that reported the largest increase in hotel occupancy were Nuevo Vallarta (31.5 percent), Puerto Escondido (23.7 percent), Cancun (13.1 percent) and the Riviera Maya (7.9 percent).
With regard to the large cities, those registering the greatest increases in hotel occupancy were Monterrey, with 10.1 percent, Guadalajara, with 6.4 percent, and Mexico City, with 6.3 percent.
Tourism generates about 9 percent of Mexico's GDP, is the country's No. 3 source of hard currency after oil exports and remittances and provides direct employment for 2.5 million people.
Last year, Mexico received 23 million international tourists and registered 178 million domestic tourists, and the sector generated revenues of more than $11 billion.
--IANS/EFE
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