A lot of tourist destinations are still recovering from the pandemic but Cancun has been setting tourism records, as the area skyrockets in popularity. Because of the fact that Mexico never closed its borders or shut down during the time when Covid -19 halted tourism everywhere else, places like Cancun became hotspots for travelers tired of being stuck at home.
Even as inflation has risen significantly over the last few months and hotels and restaurants struggle to fill positions, Cancun is still breaking records. In a recent press conference, the Secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo, Bernardo Cueto Riestra, along with the General Director of the Tourism Promotion Council, Darío Flota Ocampo, announced that there was a 20 percent increase in the number of tourists who visited the Mexican Caribbean in July and August compared to the same months in 2019. This number represents a total of 3,757,775 more tourists in those months in 2022 than July and August in the last pre-pandemic year on record.
Quintana Roo is the home state of a number of popular vacation destinations, including Cancun. While many travelers who visit the state do so specifically for Cancun, places like Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Tulum, and Isla Mujeres are all very popular among foreign tourists too. Still, Cancun surpasses all of those places in terms of recovery from the pandemic.
Travelers have many reasons to make Cancun their go-to vacation destination. Most visit for the beautiful white sand beaches, the breathtaking aqua blue sea, the water activities, the luxury all-inclusive resorts, and the exciting nightlife. Increasingly, more and more people are also visiting for the food scene as well, with hundreds of amazing restaurants to choose from.
The number of passengers that have passed through Cancun International Airport and other airports in the state has also increased by an impressive 20 percent. Mr. Ocampo referred to this at the press conference, stating that “The Mexican Caribbean continues to be the main tourist center of Mexico and Latin America, to date more than 8,817,000 passengers have arrived at all the airports of Quintana Roo, exceeding the tourist influx by 20% compared to 2019.” But the story doesn’t stop there…
The momentum of Cancun’s astonishing recovery is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year and into February 2023. During this time approximately 50,000 flights are scheduled to travel to and from the area’s airports. The majority of these will be arriving and departing from Cancun International Airport, an airport that frequently operates more than 500 flights a day.
If the projections are correct, which we have no reason to believe otherwise considering the popularity of Cancun and the Mexican Caribbean in general these days, then more than 9 million airline tickets will be sold during these months. This would be an even bigger increase in tourism during the fall and winter months than during the summer months. If that many tourists really do visit during this timeframe it will represent a 25 percent increase compared to those same months in 2019.
Cancun tourism has maintained a forward momentum for more than a year now and it doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon. After starting to gain more popularity during the pandemic word has gotten out and it is now one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world.
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