According to the World Tourism Organization, Mexico has one of the largest tourism industries in the world. In 2005 it was the seventh most popular. Mexico is the twenty-third highest tourism spender in the world, and the highest in Latin America. The most visited attractions are the Meso-American ruins, colonial cities, and especially the beach resorts. The nation's temperate climate and unique culture - a fusion of the European (particularly Spanish) and the Meso-American - also make Mexico an attractive destination. The peak tourism seasons in the country are during December and the mid-Summer, with brief surges during the week before Easter and the Spring break, when many of the beach resort sites become popular destinations for college students from the United States. The vast majority of tourists come to Mexico from the United States and Canada. Many other visitors come from Europe and Asia. A small number of tourists also come from other Latin American countries.

There is also a burgeoning domestic tourism trade as a growing affluent middle class begins to vacation within their own country. While Mexico's middle/lower class usually promotes national tourism, the middle/higher class usually prefers to travel overseas.
 
Gold decoration in the Palacio Postal in Mexico City.

In terms of the 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which is a measurement of the factors that make it attractive to developing business in the travel and tourism industry of individual countries, Mexico reached the 57th place in the world's ranking, the fifth among Latin American countries, and the ninth in the Americas. In considering simply the subindex measuring human, cultural, and natural resources, Mexico ranks in the 19th place on a worldwide level, and 25th for both the natural resources criteria and the cultural criteria.
 
Interior of Chapultepec palace in Mexico City.

The capital of Mexico, Mexico City is the most popular with tourists as an ancient Meso-American city and the site of many popular tourist attractions such as the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Other human-made tourist zones, such as the La Zona Rosa or Shopping District, El Palenque and El Zócalo (one of the largest public plazas in the world) are here. The city is also home to the Plaza de toros México - the world's largest bullring - and to the Mexican National Palace, built on the site of Montezuma's palace, and the huge Metropolitan Cathedral, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, built over the even greater Temple of Teocalli. Mexico City features also one of the highest esteemed museums in the world: the National Museum of Anthropology and History.