Financial Literacy of Workers in the Tourism Industry in Mexico in 2023: a Structural Equations Approach

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine the level of financial knowledge of workers in the tourism industry in Mexico through the Structural Equations Methodology (SEM). The type of sampling is non-probabilistic by self-determination. A questionnaire is applied to 500 workers, in 2023, from Mexican companies in the tourism sector considering the following 7 issues: investment, savings, credit, insurance, pensions, expenses and budgets. The SEM allows bring to light the financial knowledge that the surveyed workers have about these issues. Based on a factor structure obtained from the confirmatory analysis, which presents good goodness of fit, structural adjustment, and parsimony, the main findings are: 1) in terms of credit, workers give importance to the requirements requested by financial institutions and consider that they are easy to interpret and comply with, 2) in terms of retirement fund accounts, workers feel confident in institutions that manage their retirement savings and are clear about commissions, 3) in terms of savings, workers perceive that bank accounts have been adapted to their needs since banks have become very flexible in terms of requirements for opening and initial amounts with clear and complete account information, 4) in terms of investment, workers hardly acquire bank promissory notes, and 5) regarding life insurance, workers express the ease that exists to contract insurance, although the cost is limited. The results obtained have practical implications for the tourism sector to continue promoting the habit of saving and the use of financial services and products to which the worker can have access, since this financial knowledge translates into more organized employees in their financial affairs.