Los Cabos Builds on ‘Historic’ Visitor Year

New York — Los Cabos enjoyed a “historic year ” in 2022 with a 25% increase in visitors over 2021 to a total of 3.5 million, 80% of them from the U.S. according to Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board, speaking at a media event.

That increase, he said, came on top of a healthy 2021 when the destination recovered to 2019 numbers with 2.8 million arrivals. In sum, Los Cabos is the fastest-growing destination in Mexico.

The continuing boom, said Esponda, is a result of the destination’s emphasis on quality, its safety and a “culture” of being positive about tourism in a place where it is the only industry. The average daily rate for hotels increased in 2022 to more than $200 over 2019 to $513 with more luxury properties coming soon. With a total of 18,000 rooms, said Esponda, hotels average 200 rooms per location. A third of the resorts in Los Cabos are all-inclusive, but even those offer multiple options to enjoy restaurants and activities outside the resort.

The island’s feeder markets have diversified, said Esponda. Where arrivals had mostly been from the west coast, there is growth from New York because of nonstop flights on JetBlue and even from Florida although there are no nonstop flights from there. There are now 27 gateways in the U.S. offering nonstop flights to the destination – up from 19 a couple of years ago. There has been a 40% increase in the number of seats from the U.S. since 2019. The destination is in conversation with Breeze Airways to add service from gateways to be determined.

Los Cabos, said Esponda, is fourth in Mexico in terms of cruise visitor arrivals, and number one on the country’s Pacific coast. There is capacity control for cruises so that there can be only four large ships in port at a time.

“Our proposition is quality,” said Esponda, “whether it’s food or the outdoor experience or golf.” And, he said, even if a hotel is a three- or four-star product it will offer a quality experience because of destination-wide standards. The only AAA Five Diamond all-inclusive resort anywhere, said Esponda, is the Grand Velas Los Cabos. And Los Cabos has the highest concentration of Virtuoso properties in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America with 14. According to the tourism board, there was a $2,199 average travel price for travelers in the U.S. market who booked in March and are traveling in June