A first cruise ship carrying more than 2,000 passengers sailed back to Mexico's Caribbean coast , the tourism ministry said, as the country's swine flu death toll rose to 89.
Mexico's Tourism Minister Rodolfo Elizondo welcomed the ship from the Royal Caribbean company at Cozumel island a month after the A(H1N1) outbreak caused cruise liners, airlines and tour companies to stay away, in a harsh blow to the tourism industry.
"It's a clear sign of the recuperation of tourist activity in Cozumel and the whole country," Mr Elizondo said, according to a statement.
Officials were expecting 39 ships to visit Mexico's ports in the next month.
The swine flu death toll meanwhile rose by four to 89, and the number of confirmed infections rose to 4,821 as scientists analysed a backlog of cases, the health ministry said, adding that the virus was still on the wane.
Cozumel was one of the first five Mexican sites certified as being free from swine flu, the tourism ministry said, two days after the launch of a $90-million campaign to lure tourists back.
The flu epidemic hobbled the tourist industry, which provides the country's third source of foreign income after oil and remittances.
The flu's total impact was expected to cost Mexico's economy some €1.7 billion dollars, around 0.3 per cent of gross domestic product. The health ministry meanwhile prepared a broad "psychosocial study to evaluate the impact and repercussions" of the virus in Mexico, according to press spokesman Carlos Olmos. Mexico will launch public health campaigns from October, when temperatures start to drop here, specifically targeted at vulnerable populations identified in the profiling, said Mr Olmos.
As well as lower social classes, young housewives appeared to have been particularly hard-hit, representing 27 per cent of the deaths, according to the ministry. Doctors said housewives were vulnerable due to their contact with a wide range of people, including at markets and schools, and their responsibility for other family members, leading them to often seek treatment late.