Mexicans Contributing to The American Economy

Mexican shoppers with fists full of cash and long Christmas lists are pouring across the border into hotels, restaurants and shopping malls here, providing an economic boost in a downward spiraling economy.

A clerk at a J. C. Penney store in Tucson rang up a purchase for Cecilia Rivera, left, on a shopping trip from Hermosillo, Mexico. Tucson’s economy depends on shoppers from south of the border.

“It’s extremely vital to make sure we do everything we can do to accommodate them at this time,” said George Bon, national sales manager for the Radisson Suites Tucson. “The bottom line is, we can’t afford to lose them.”

Tucson attracts more than 3.46 million visitors from Mexico each year. Mexican visitors spend more than $300 million a year in the Tucson metropolitan area, according to a study in 2002 by the Economic and Business Research Program at the University of Arizona.  read more at .nytimes.com