Impact of tourism on hotels and restaurants in the productive structure of Mexico: a national and interregional input–output analysis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the productive articulation of the hotel and restaurant sector in Mexico from a long-run national perspective covering 1970–2018 and from a subnational perspective at the level of federal entities for 2018. The hypothetical extraction method is applied to a homologated series of national input–output matrices and to the multi-state input–output matrix. Three main findings emerge. The sector’s backward linkages remained stable in absolute terms while improving in relative position over the long run. Its forward linkages declined substantially over the same period, as its main intermediate buyers reconfigured. The productive articulation of the sector is heterogeneous across federal entities, with hotels in Quintana Roo and restaurants in Mexico City standing out as the most integrated, while the sector remains weakly articulated in most other tourism-specialized states. The paper offers the first joint assessment of the temporal evolution and regional heterogeneity of tourism’s productive articulation in Mexico and supports a policy reorientation to consolidate its domestic productive base.