The top five most-visited countries in the world are, by several measures: France, Spain, the United States, Italy and Turkey.<\/p>\n
The country in sixth place, Mexico, is already a steadily growing tourism powerhouse. Now it\u2019s hoping that soccer \u2014 and a bit of the Trump effect \u2014 could help it crack into that elite group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set a very ambitious goal,\u201d President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier this year about the objective for her six-year term, which ends in 2030.<\/p>\n
The largest World Cup in history \u2014 104 games, 48 countries \u2014 is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, which will host its final game on Sunday, between its national team and England in Mexico City. Before the tournament, Mexican officials and organizers estimated that 5.5 million people will visit the country during the six-week tournament, generating billions of dollars in economic activity.<\/p>\n
Some critics have cast doubt on those figures,<\/a> but Mexico, already relatively more open to tourism, has made it easier for citizens of certain countries to visit \u2014 with the World Cup in mind. The thinking: If you can\u2019t go to the United States because of President Trump\u2019s stricter immigration policies<\/a>, come here instead.<\/p>\n \u201cMexico maintains its position of being a friendly country to the world,\u201d said Gabriela Cuevas, the Mexican government\u2019s World Cup representative.<\/p>\n Since Mr. Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has made travel to the United States harder, with steep new fees, visa hurdles and aggressive language toward certain countries. Travel to the United States fell<\/a> about 6 percent last year, a loss of four million foreign visitors, to 68 million. It was the only country among the top six most visited to experience a decline, according to figures from a U.N. tourism organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mexico, though, reached new heights. Last year, the country of over 130 million residents received a record 48 million overnight tourists, a 6 percent jump and more than its prepandemic record of 45 million in 2019. Tourism was one of the bright spots in a Mexican economy that has lately sputtered under its own growth problems<\/a>, a bloated budget<\/a> and Mr. Trump\u2019s tariff pressure<\/a>.<\/p>\n And when the United States placed restrictions on the Iranian team, Mexico allowed it to set up its base camp in Tijuana, close to the border.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go where you\u2019re treated well,\u201d said Josefina Rodr\u00edguez Zamora, Mexico\u2019s tourism minister, noting that her country had seen a 9 percent jump from Canadian visitors<\/a>, who appear to be boycotting travel to the United States amid tensions with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n For the first time, the busiest international route to Mexico was not from a U.S. city but from Canada. Last year, the Toronto-Canc\u00fan flight surpassed Dallas-Canc\u00fan for the top spot, and flights from Montreal to Canc\u00fan have jumped significantly.<\/p>\n The Mexican government has also tried to position the country as a destination for Latin America during the World Cup. Colombia, with 54 million residents, represents Mexico\u2019s third most important tourist market. During the group stage, the Colombian national team played two of its three games in Mexico. Just before the tournament, Ms. Rodr\u00edguez Zamora said Mexico streamlined its entry process for Colombians, and the rejection rate dropped from 8 percent to 2 percent.<\/p>\n At the recent Colombia-Uzbekistan game in Mexico City, nearly all of the 81,000 people in the stadium cheered on Colombia. And while some visited from the United States and Canada, several told The New York Times they had traveled directly from Colombia.<\/p>\n Erika Leon, 47, and Orlando P\u00e9rez, 57, friends who work in banking in Bogot\u00e1, said they had worried they might face problems other Colombians described before the World Cup, such as deportation, or hours of questioning. But Ms. Leon said entry was easy. \u201cEveryone was friendly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Neither had a U.S. visa, nor any desire to get one. Both said they preferred visiting Mexico over the United States, where Mr. Trump\u2019s administration has made it harder to obtain or renew tourist<\/a> and immigrant<\/a> visas from a number of countries, even requiring bond payments of up to $15,000<\/a> from some visitors to ensure they do not overstay their visas.<\/p>\n The White House has said that Mr. Trump is focused on ensuring that the World Cup is \u201can incredible experience for all fans and visitors,\u201d but also \u201cthe safest and most secure in history.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahmed Ben Dahmen, 32, a Tunisian working in information technology in Montreal, came to Monterrey, Mexico, to see his country\u2019s national team play its first two games and boycotted the third game, in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIf President Trump doesn\u2019t want to see Tunisian people or Colombian, we don\u2019t come,\u201d he said, adding that he was \u201chappy\u201d to spend his money in Mexico instead.<\/p>\n Some fans said it was simply cheaper. Although high ticket prices have been a sore point<\/a> through the tournament, visitors said they saved money by traveling to Mexico, where lodging, food and transportation cost less.<\/p>\n Carlos Londo\u00f1o Garces, 58, a lawyer from Medell\u00edn, said his $3,000 ticket to see Colombia play in Miami was double what he paid to see its first game in Mexico.<\/p>\n To make travel to Mexico easier and climb the global rankings, Ms. Rodr\u00edguez Zamora, the tourism minister, said the government has been working to digitize more of the visa application process. In February, Mexico reinstated an electronic visa process for Brazilians that allows visitors arriving by plane to apply online beforehand, in contrast to the United States, which requires a physical visa.<\/p>\n She said she hoped that Latin Americans whose teams are playing in the United States would instead gather at the large and lively watch parties<\/a> throughout Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to visit us before they visit the United States,\u201d Ms. Rodr\u00edguez Zamora said. \u201cThe Latin American market is waiting to experience a party, and they\u2019re going to find that party in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone shares her optimism. Enrique de la Madrid, Mexico\u2019s former tourism minister and a member of an opposing political party, called the World Cup \u201can extraordinary\u201d opportunity but a one-time event. He noted that Ms. Sheinbaum\u2019s predecessor has dissolved<\/a> a key tourism marketing board. He said that foreign visitors to Mexico arriving by plane \u2014 who spend more than land border crossers \u2014 had dropped slightly last year. And several World Cup host cities have already trimmed their expectations<\/a> for hotel and visitor numbers.<\/p>\n To displace Italy or Turkey from the top-five list, he said, Mexico would need to attract 12 million more visitors per year. \u201cWe aren\u2019t going to reach fifth place unless we put in the money and the strategy that other countries do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top five most-visited countries in the world are, by several measures: France, Spain, the United States, Italy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67751,1452,93068,10920,109823,2106,109821,9,11,10,109822,81481,10921,1069,1554,1876,89465,109824],"class_list":["post-286947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-claudia","tag-donald-j","tag-enrique","tag-hotels-and-travel-lodgings","tag-medellin-cartel","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city-mexico","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pena-nieto","tag-sheinbaum","tag-travel-and-vacations","tag-trump","tag-united-states-international-relations","tag-united-states-politics-and-government","tag-world-cup-2026-soccer","tag-world-cup-2030-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}