The country, whose tourism has grown as the military's weight in the sector has increased, rose from 9th place in the list of the top 10 countries with the most visitors in the world in 2019 to 6th place with 38 million visitors in 2022.
Last year, the Mexican army established an airline to transport tourists, and now it has entered the field of rail transportation. The armed forces also took over the management of the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur). Fonatur manages other revenues, including the 35 Euros collected from every tourist who enters Mexico by land, sea or air, and finances Mexico's tourism infrastructure investments with the money accumulated in the fund.
Following a proposal by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Senate has agreed that Grupo Olmeca-Maya-Mexica, the military company that built the Mayan Train and Felipe Angeles International Airport, will operate the 4 civilian airports and the Mayan Train to be built in 6 years.
In addition to the operation of the Mayan Train and the new AIFA airport, the National Defense Secretariat Sedena will be responsible for the management of the new tourism destination in Mexico.
