Foreign Companies to Bid for Maya Train Project

Over 80 national and international companies are expected to participate in the first international tender of the Maya Train project. The bid released by the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (FONATUR) last week covers contracts for the supply of materials and building the first section of track from Palenque to Escárcega.

The winner will be announced on April 23 and works are expected to start during the first week of May. FONATUR’s MX$4.69 billion (approx. US$2.5 billion) budget for 2020 is ready to start one of the top infrastructure projects of the President López Obrador administration

The first section, a 226 km stretch, will require a MX$19 billion (approx. US$1.02 billion) investment and it is expected to be finished within 28 months. An advance of 15 percent will be given to the winner to build offices and warehouses, and to start purchasing materials and machinery.

There will be a 30 percent national content requirement on the project, included in the supply of materials, machinery, and the workforce. This was decided after the president of the Mexican Chamber of Construction Industry (CMIC), Eduardo Ramírez, asked authorities to guarantee the participation of domestic SMEs in the mega project.

International companies are expected to provide expertise and knowledge from working on similar projects in their countries, FONATUR highlighted.

International Tourist Figures Grow Slowly

The number of international tourists coming to Mexico during 2019 increased only 2 percent compared to 2018 figures, INEGI’s International Travelers Survey has reported. A total of 23 million 756,957 foreign visitors, either on vacation or business trips, entered the country last year.

Once again, high-spending international travelers are missing from Mexican destinations and there are no sings that this trend will change.

The December holidays were once again the busiest time of year for Mexican tourism with 2 million 715,184 visitors people coming from abroad. This was followed by the Easter period and the summer months which registered 2 million 359,787 and 2 million 163,383 tourists respectively.