Wilma Damages Mexico´s Economic Growth

The paralysis of Mexico´s world famous tourist resorts on the Yucatan peninsula caused by the devastating passage of Hurricane Wilma may slow the country´s economic growth in 2005 by up to a quarter of a percentage point.

The region, which accounts for 35 percent of Mexico´s income from tourism, will take at least three to four months to recover, according to hotel owners.

Local government officials estimate that 98 percent of the tourist infrastructure and 75 per cent of the population of the state of Quintana Roo, which includes the resorts of Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres, has been damaged.

Hotel chains are expected to remain closed until the end of the year. John McCarthy, director of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (FONATUR) said that the suspension of tourist activity in Cancun and the ´Riviera Maya´ would result in a loss of $15 million a day.

The tourism industry, which brings in $11 billion a year and accounts for 8 percent of gross domestic product, provides Mexico´s third most important source of foreign currency after oil revenues and remittances from migrants.