We're working with the State of Quintana Roo and the State of Guerrero departments of tourism and we'd love to hear from people as to why international air travel to Mexico has fallen largely out of favor with US tourists and international tourists.

Seaweed? Police? Violence? Airline Prices/Lack of Value? Visitax? Transportation?

If you've decided you won't visit again, what if anything would change your mind?

ASUR in Cancun is down almost 10% YOY and Tulum Airpost is down over 40%.

That's a million plus passengers up in smoke.

Meanwhile Punta Cana in DR is up 11% yoy for 2026.

Acapulco has seen in increase in passengers but that's most all domestic.

We'd love to get your thoughts.

I'm not currently going due to the sargassum.

Crime has never been a concern to me.

In the past 5-6 years I have been to Cabo twice, Cancun once and Isla Mujeres once. We don't have Mexico on our schedule or wish list for the foreseeable future. Not because we don't like it. Some of it is security concerns. Some of it is price, both airfare and hotel costs. Mainly it is because we have done it. It was always a good backup plan, in case we couldn't make a different trip work. Now, it isn't even the backup.

I don't have anything in mind that they could do to change my mind. They didn't really do anything to drive me away. Maybe if the prices came down it would be brought up as a backup. I also think politics play a small role. The orange guy has pissed off so many people, and foreign governments that international travel has a tiny bit more potential for trouble. Sure, a lot of that is in people's heads, but doesn't mean it doesn't exist there. Not cheap, perceived increased risk and done it already is my summation.

I think these things are cyclical and they are just in a down spot. Spruce some things up and I bet it is back soon.

We go and will continue to go, but it's gone from every year (or 2x year) to once a year or once every other year. No issues with security.

By far the biggest deterrents are the Sargassum and Airlines prices. It's tough to justify $600+/pp to fly down and not want to get into the ocean. There has also been some significant beach erosion on the Riviera Maya which has not been helpful either.

And people are just not travelling as much these days due to cost.....that's the bigger overarching issue.

We still go and take the kids to Mexico 3 or 4 times a year.

The Cancun +Tulum airports combined show traffic down 3% in 2024 and same for 2025.

Cabo San Jose shows increases every year.

2026 they have all tanked. Guanajuato has grown but Cabo/Cancun/Tulum are down big time.

2023/4 was peak peak here. The economy plateau in 2025 (the summer and fall and winter of 25/26 were below average the spring and winter turn of 24/25 were above average). The sargassum hit April of 2025 and since then then the decline has continued and it feels like accelerated.

Cancun has lost something like a million seats a year and tulum has been absolutely decimated. The airport carried 1.3 million, 1.2 million and this year is on track for less than 800,000 with United running once a day to houston, American to Dallas once a day, and like 2 flights from Viva/Mexicana.

Everything else has left. We had 12 carriers and now we have 4.

The flights we still have are on much smaller regional jets too.

So less flights and less seats.

I know the Sprirt bankruptcy cut something like 600,000 seats a year to ASUR and not only that those were the value seats that made the other carriers keep prices lower.

Cabo is down 8.5% YOY 2025/2026 for international travelers. Don't look at totals. The domestic numbers are manipulated by the government. They started out strong but late Spring/Summer/Fall have been bloody.

Oaxaca & Puerto Escondido and SMA are the areas currently growing.

We thought w the Peso moving from 16.5/1 to 18.5/1 we may see a bounce pre-November but right now it's still a ghost town and the sargassum is the here. If it's here in November when the Canadians start coming? it's gonna be a bloodbath.

For those that are choosing to travel elsewhere, where are some of those places?

I haven't been but heard stories, specifically friends at nice resorts casually mentioning the military-like security.


It can be seen two ways, but I don't think military-like security inspires confidence.

Bayou City said:

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For those that are choosing to travel elsewhere, where are some of those places?

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All the reasons mentioned above.

As a POV on alternates… We bought a condo in the Caymans with my wife's immediate family. Beachfront, pool bar, pretty private beach, safe, great food, great people.

Still an easy flight from DFW during peak season, and a quick outbound connection through MIA in shoulder season (but still direct on way home).

Can travel whenever we want to, our stuff stays down there and basically don't have to pack a lot. Strata fees + incidental repairs or maintenance are less than some of the huge vacation costs you weee mentioning. That's not even including if we decide to start renting it out. And at the end of the day, we could just sell the property as well.

I wouldn't have done that by myself, but splitting a 3 BR condo between 5 families, alternating times down there is easy enough and splits costs and still allows the wife and I to trip to Europe or other non-beach destinations at other times of the year.

Flight prices, resort costs, and sargassum don't yield value like it used to. When it costs the same to go elsewhere in the Caribbean or internationally, people are going to do that.

I haven't been to Mexico in a long time, but I own a place on Ambergris Caye Belize. Same thing. It costs $1000 in international and domestic flights per person, that's ridiculous. I could go to Europe for the same cost.

Sunset Cove?

The overarching thing is the economy and people are just worried.

But, for me, the prices to go to Mexico have skyrocketed in the past 2 years and the cost to do a AI in Mexico isn't far off from going to other places in the Caribbean or Europe/Hawaii. The only saving grace for Mexico is it is a 2-4 hour flight from USA/CN.

resort costs
airline costs
security (i don't have a problem with it but perception is reality)

Bayou City said:

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For those that are choosing to travel elsewhere, where are some of those places?

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Hawaii, Florida, and the Texas coast will all be chosen before Mexico for beach vacations moving forward.

We were in Playa del Carmen in January with extended family. Then in Hawaii in July with just my family. The difference in infrastructure and quality of life is striking.

Schall 02 said:

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I haven't been but heard stories, specifically friends at nice resorts casually mentioning the military-like security.


It can be seen two ways, but I don't think military-like security inspires confidence.

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On my trip, there was a guy standing around in the entertainment district of GDL with an AK.

And when we flew back out to come home, they had military with truck mounted 50cals stationed across the entire front of airport.

Good times.

We are probably the exception to this. The previous 30 years never went, but in the last couple of years we have probably been 8-10 times.(mainly Cancun).

Primary reason for switching is we had basically hit all of the Sandal's and were tired of flying through Miami. The convivence of traveling to Mexico for a quick trip is great.

Flights have become more expensive (we fly Southwest and American), so I can see that impacting peoples travels with the economy today.

Other topics asked about:

Seaweed can be bad, but where we stay they tend to clean it up daily.

Police/Violence - one of our drivers told has that the cartels had struck a deal with the mayors/governors to leave tourist alone. We treat it like any country or US city we travel to, be aware of your surroundings and don't do stupid stuff.

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When will the bridge be completed from the Cancun / City to the hotel district?

we've been to cancun twice and cabo twice in the last 5 years.

This discussion of price piqued my interest so I went to see.

We stayed at royalton splash cancun oct 2024, family of 4, swim out, it was $3404.
Looking at same week in 2027, it's $4742, almost 40% increase.

July 2024 we did Villa del palmar in cabo, 4 of us, one bedroom all inclusive package, it was $2690, same week next july is $2731, so cheaper if you account for inflation.

The other three times were timeshare presentation deals, so we only paid $200-$300 each for a week at Hilton in cabo, 4 nights at westin lagunamar cancun, and another time for 4 nights at westin cabo which we tacked on to our week at villa del palmar

so that's not very conclusive.. one resort up 40%, the other is same price as 2 years ago.

I'm a Oaxaca, PE, SMA kind of traveler myself. Just a theory - but are cruise bookings going up at the same time resort bookings are going down? Those seem like the same kind of traveler.

My primary travel experiences are to Europe, about 2 months out of the year. I live on the East Coast so flight time isn't a big factor.

I view travel to Mexico as a spontaneous, long weekend experience rather than an extended stay.

Just tell them to drastically lower prices for everything and see if that helps. Too many factors negatively affecting travel there now. They can only lower prices far enough to get people to start coming back. Or have empty rooms. What are they gonna do to change are they gonna lower all crime now? Prevent sargassum? Lowering prices is the only option.

All of the above but primarily seaweed (higher airfare is a close second). Our Cancun/RM window runs from Thanksgiving to MLK now, otherwise we will do the Pacific coast maybe once a year. Have been going to Costa Rica instead in recent years as more high-end resorts have been opening in Guanacaste.

Still have San Miguel de Allende on the bucket list for 27 though.

Senator Blutarski said:

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I'm a Oaxaca, PE, SMA kind of traveler myself. Just a theory - but are cruise bookings going up at the same time resort bookings are going down? Those seem like the same kind of traveler.

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I've booked more cruises for clients in the past 2-3 years than I did my first 7 years combined in business (hit 10 years in business this heed).

I do enjoy a good A/I trip to Mexico. Have never felt unsafe in Cabo or Cancun. Prices have increased - both airfare and resorts - I can see why travel is down. As others have said, you can travel to different areas for similar expense. Only real trump card left is short flights from Texas to Mexico.

In June, we did an AI in Cabo for a relative's destination wedding. It was our 3rd trip to Cabo (1993 and 2010 were the others).

It seems to me like Cabo has gotten crazy expensive - at least for stuff not on the property.
Drinks in town, Food at the airport, etc.

As far as the AI we stayed at - Hard Rock, the clientele was primarily Indian and Black destination weddings. We did enjoy watching the World Cup by the pool but, got tired of eating the same damn food every day.

I enjoyed the Charter fishing experience but in all honesty, at my age, I don't know if I'll be back to Cabo and I don't really have any interest in the other destinations.

For my money, I'd prefer to hang out in Puerto Rico with a stopover in South Beach Miami.

We go to Mexico 2-3 times a year and flights have gotten ridiculous. I understand oil is up but it seems like prices to Mexico have gone up more than prices in the states. We just got back from Mexico two weeks ago and we will be back in January so it hasn't slowed us down but prices have gone up drastically. We were just in Isla Mujeres and it was the most dead I've ever seen it. We felt bad for the locals who all depend on tourism.