Cancun, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta Lead Mexico’s Tourism Recovery

The results of international tourism in July are very positive in Mexico, with strong growth of international arrivals by air, record levels in income by international visitors, and an increase in average spending per tourist.

The airports located in the most important beach destinations registered in the first seven months of 2022 a growth of 12.6 percent in the arrival of visitors compared to the same period of 2019, with 8.4 million entries (936,000 additional visitors).

Cancun and Los Cabos have been leading the recovery of international visitor arrivals to beach destinations for months. In July they registered increases of 26.6 percent and 32.6 percent respectively, compared to the arrivals of the same month of 2019, and so far in 2022, they accumulate a growth of 14.6 percent, the former, and 17.9 percent of the latter. Puerto Vallarta, the third most important beach destination in the country, managed to exceed for the first time the cumulative level of arrivals prior to the pandemic by 3.1 percent.

According to Reporte Gemes from Grupo Empresarial Estrategia, a Mexican think tank focused on tourism, with 5.7 million visitors from January to July, Cancun is the main point of entry for Mexico by air. In the last month alone, the airport received 883,000 foreign visitors, which represents 47 percent of the total volume of visitors to Mexico (4 percentage points more than in the same month of 2019).

The extraordinary performance of this destination has been favored by the accelerated recovery of the US tourism market, which in the first seven months of the year accumulates a growth of 34.7 percent; with 3.6 million visitors this country represents 62.9 percent of the international tourism market to the destination, increasing its participation by 9.4 percentage points compared to the same period of 2019.

But not only the U.S. market has increased arrivals to Cancun; the arrival of visitors from Colombia has almost doubled in the first seven months of the year (93.8 percent). Likewise, visitors from France (9 percent), Spain (9.3 percent), and Peru (65.2 percent).

The U.S. market has been the big driver of the recovery of international tourism to Mexico; the unrestricted openness of our country to travel, geographical proximity and tourist attractions have placed Mexico in a privileged position to attract tourists from the U.S. during the pandemic.

With the arrival of summer, a season of high influx of international tourism, Mexican tourist destinations have seen their recovery strengthened by the arrival of international visitors by air. Until July of this year, Mexico received 11.9 million foreigners through its airports, which represents an increase of 3.8 percent compared to the January-July period of 2019, according to data from Mexico’s Migration Policy Unit.