Tourism activity in our city started in the middle of the last century when some veterans from the US came when the American government offered them benefits to study.
The artistic scene started gaining prominence. Important figures from the Mexican art world such as Siqueiros visited San Miguel to give classes and decorate murals.
The first boom made tourism to San Miguel chiefly cultural and artistic. More steady inflows of tourists started in the s and s. At that time, it was very focused on foreign tourism, and there was a lot of immigration into the city from people to start business on tourism. National tourists started arriving in the s. Today, San Miguel de Allende stands out because of the number of cultural events and traditions that remain within the population couple with an exquisite taste for fine arts.
The Tourist Council of San Miguel de Allende was created in with the aim of raising awareness of the city's vivid cultural life in the country and abroad. Since then, the number of tourists has gone from , to almost two million per year in the last 15 years. It is a quite accelerated growth that has been backed by the large investments of world-class top hotels such as Rosewood, Matilda, and Aqua. After that, we have agro-industry at However, tourism is clearly a great driving force for the rest of the economy.
San Miguel de Allende has approximately , inhabitants. Of those, 80, live in La Cabecera, , of which are foreigners, mainly North Americans. That has affected much the culture of the city, but they are well integrated. Americans and foreigners began to arrive more than 70 or 80 years ago, and they have greatly contributed to the local community. Many came as retirees and were dedicated to civic associations.
