The goal of this paper is to estimate(with the data available) the impact of tourism as a factorof shared growth at the local or municipal level in Mexico.This country provides an excellent research example due toits socioeconomic characteristics, the fact that tourism isan important economic activity and that, in spite of nothaving an ideal database to prove empirically that tourismis associated to shared growth, there are reliable databasesthat combined may provide insightful information. The mainfindings are: first, tourist destinations in general havebetter economic conditions that neighbor communities.Second, in general we find that growth in tourism (growth intourism related employment) is associated to moreemployment, to lower percentage of population working insocial security, and to better figures in the HumanDevelopment Index (HDI). It has also been found that growthin maquila and oil industries do not present these positive impacts.