by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:00 AM ET, Thu January 4, 2018
A new study found that more Mexicans traveled to Canada in 2017 than the previous year, but fewer visited the United States during the same period.
According to Reportur.com, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that 50 percent more citizens visited Canada last year as compared to 2016. The rise in tourism numbers comes after Mexico eliminated the visa requirement to visit Canada in December 2016.
On the other hand, tourism from Mexico to the U.S. decreased at a rate of 3.8 percent from January to October 2017. The numbers dropped from the 71 million visitors in 2016 to 68.3 million visitors last year.
While officials blamed the drop in visitors on the arrival of Donald Trump as the U.S. President, the Foreign Ministry talked about how the strengthened relationship between Mexico and Canada has helped improve tourism numbers.
Mexican officials also gave credit for the increase in tourism numbers to Canada to more airlines like Aeromexico offering service to additional cities, including Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
In November, U.S.-based carrier Southwest Airlines announced it will begin operating new flights from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Raleigh, North Carolina, to Cancun starting in 2018. The airline also announced it will now offer a fourth flight to Houston from Cancun.
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