Quick facts about the impact of visitors from Mexico

by Adnan Alam

By Cronkite News Service

A 2008 report by the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management offers these facts about the impact of visitors from Mexico:

_ A total of 24 million people crossed the border from Mexico to Arizona from July 2007 to June 2008.

_ The largest economic impact of Mexican visitor spending was in Pima County, followed by Maricopa and Santa Cruz counties.

_ Mexican visitor spending generated nearly half of all taxable sales in Santa Cruz County, where Nogales is located.

_ Leisure, such as shopping, vacations, visiting friends and relatives and personal health accounted for nearly two-thirds of travel from Mexico. Business-related reasons accounted for most of the rest.

_ Ninety-nine percent of visitors to Arizona from Mexico were from the state of Sonora.