Also, USA is Top International Destination for Mexican Travelers: While not an issue covered closely by the travel and tourism trade news media in the U.S., the question of where travelers from Mexico and, more broadly speaking, Latin America, book the hotel component of their travels shows that local or regional websites are an integral part of the path to purchase among Mexicans and Latin Americans. Mexico is, after all, the second-largest source of international visitors to the USA.
Just recently, the Mexico City-based travel news portal, Pasillico Touristico, covered the release of a list of the top hotel booking channels used by travelers from Mexico. It showed that global brands are at the top of the list, but that regional brands are strong and popular, according to SiteMinder, a guest acquisition platform. SiteMinder based its rank on the total gross revenue for all users of the platform.
SiteMinder released its findings in two parts—one for the full-year results of 2021 and another for the roughly nine months of the year left after the restoration of hotel reservations following a virtual lockdown of activity.
In both lists, Expedia, Booking.com and Hotelbeds comprise the Top 3, followed by the generic hotel website, where consumers made direct bookings.
But Numbers 5, 6 and 7 were Price Travel (headquartered in Cancún); Best Day (also based in Cancún); and Despegar, which is headquartered in Buenos Aires, but operates across 20 countries in Latin America.
Meanwhile, another study says USA is No. 1 for Mexicans. Online travel agency Despegar (No. 7 channel among Mexicans for booking hotel rooms) released findings of its own analysis of booking data and said that the international destinations most sought after by Mexicans to travel during 2021 are: the United States, Spain, Colombia and Argentina.
Despegar said that, for the United States, among the reasons why it tops among Mexicans: “the favorite country of Mexicans given its proximity, cultural diversity, natural landscapes … make it an unbeatable tourist attraction and endless adventures that can be done in large cities. Among the destinations preferred by Mexicans are New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Houston.”
