Mexico races to recover tourism it lost to pandemic, admitting visitors in under 2 minutes

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Even as other countries institute airport testing, tracing and mandatory isolation, Mexican authorities bragged Wednesday about the speed with which they let tourists exit the terminal at the resort of Cancun.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, the INM, said Wednesday it took tourists an average of only one to two minutes to enter the country.

“The INM is working to maintain and offer rapid service, with quality and warmth,” the institute said.

During peak hours Tuesday, checkpoints at the Cancun airport processed almost 9,000 tourists arriving on dozens of flights.

Mexico has not recovered the level of tourism it had before the pandemic; the overall numbers of tourists arriving at the Cancun airport, one of Mexico’s busiest, was about 1.3 million in January, 54.7% lower than the same month of 2020, when almost 2.3 million passengers landed there.

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