The top five most-visited countries in the world are, by several measures: France, Spain, the United States, Italy and Turkey.
The country in sixth place, Mexico, is already a steadily growing tourism powerhouse. Now it’s hoping that soccer — and a bit of the Trump effect — could help it crack into that elite group.
“We set a very ambitious goal,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier this year about the objective for her six-year term, which ends in 2030.
The largest World Cup in history — 104 games, 48 countries — 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.
Some critics have cast doubt on those figures, but Mexico, already relatively more open to tourism, has made it easier for citizens of certain countries to visit — with the World Cup in mind. The thinking: If you can’t go to the United States because of President Trump’s stricter immigration policies, come here instead.
“Mexico maintains its position of being a friendly country to the world,” said Gabriela Cuevas, the Mexican government’s World Cup representative.
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 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.
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 bloated budget and Mr. Trump’s tariff pressure.
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.
“You go where you’re treated well,” said Josefina Rodríguez Zamora, Mexico’s tourism minister, noting that her country had seen a 9 percent jump from Canadian visitors, who appear to be boycotting travel to the United States amid tensions with the Trump administration.
For the first time, the busiest international route to Mexico was not from a U.S. city but from Canada. Last year, the Toronto-Cancún flight surpassed Dallas-Cancún for the top spot, and flights from Montreal to Cancún have jumped significantly.
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’s 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. Rodríguez Zamora said Mexico streamlined its entry process for Colombians, and the rejection rate dropped from 8 percent to 2 percent.
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.
Erika Leon, 47, and Orlando Pérez, 57, friends who work in banking in Bogotá, 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. “Everyone was friendly,” she said.
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’s administration has made it harder to obtain or renew tourist and immigrant visas from a number of countries, even requiring bond payments of up to $15,000 from some visitors to ensure they do not overstay their visas.
The White House has said that Mr. Trump is focused on ensuring that the World Cup is “an incredible experience for all fans and visitors,” but also “the safest and most secure in history.”
Ahmed Ben Dahmen, 32, a Tunisian working in information technology in Montreal, came to Monterrey, Mexico, to see his country’s national team play its first two games and boycotted the third game, in the United States.
“If President Trump doesn’t want to see Tunisian people or Colombian, we don’t come,” he said, adding that he was “happy” to spend his money in Mexico instead.
Some fans said it was simply cheaper. Although high ticket prices have been a sore point through the tournament, visitors said they saved money by traveling to Mexico, where lodging, food and transportation cost less.
Carlos Londoño Garces, 58, a lawyer from Medellín, said his $3,000 ticket to see Colombia play in Miami was double what he paid to see its first game in Mexico.
To make travel to Mexico easier and climb the global rankings, Ms. Rodríguez 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.
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 throughout Mexico.
“They’re going to visit us before they visit the United States,” Ms. Rodríguez Zamora said. “The Latin American market is waiting to experience a party, and they’re going to find that party in our country.”
Not everyone shares her optimism. Enrique de la Madrid, Mexico’s former tourism minister and a member of an opposing political party, called the World Cup “an extraordinary” opportunity but a one-time event. He noted that Ms. Sheinbaum’s predecessor has dissolved a key tourism marketing board. He said that foreign visitors to Mexico arriving by plane — who spend more than land border crossers — had dropped slightly last year. And several World Cup host cities have already trimmed their expectations for hotel and visitor numbers.
To displace Italy or Turkey from the top-five list, he said, Mexico would need to attract 12 million more visitors per year. “We aren’t going to reach fifth place unless we put in the money and the strategy that other countries do.”
Ms. Rodríguez Zamora said the government would keep working on safety — and the perception of it. She hopes the World Cup helps with that, particularly among foreign visitors.
“They wouldn’t come if they had a bad experience,” she said. “Quite the contrary.”
