Tourism Is Huge in Mexico. Spending on Cultural Sites Isn’t

President Claudia Sheinbaum heralded in January what she declared to be Mexico’s most significant archaeological discovery in a decade: a 1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb uncovered in southern Oaxaca state. A slick government video celebrating the find reveals a striking stone mask hanging over a relief sculpture of a human face carved above the tomb’s entrance, traces of ancient paint still visible. What the president didn’t say is that the discovery was actually made months earlier by looters who took all the objects from the tomb’s floor, leaving only some scattered bones, according to employees at the country’s antiquities institute who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) sent researchers to the sacked burial site only after a neighbor complained to the authorities.

Although Mexico is what Sheinbaum frequently calls a “cultural powerhouse”—with Spanish colonial architecture on display alongside towering ancient pyramids built by stargazing civilizations filled with poets, painters, potters and priests—critics warn far too little is spent on maintaining the country’s oldest and most fragile sites. With rare exceptions, today’s top tourist destinations are underfunded, with sharp budget cuts over the past several years compounding the crunch and putting the long-term viability of Mexico’s more than $30 billion international tourism industry at risk.