Hotel occupancy, air traffic and visits to the archaeological zone are declining in the flagship destination of the Riviera Maya, in a year of record highs for Mexican tourism
SANTO DOMINGO. – The Tulum International Airport, on the Mexican Riviera Maya, which began operating in December 2023, received 178,000 international passengers in the first quarter of 2026, 34% less than in the same period of 2025, according to figures from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) collected by the newspaper El Tiempo de Monclova last May.
Between January and August, AFAC recorded a 33.6% drop in passenger traffic, according to Ladevi, a media outlet specializing in tourism and transportation, with portals in several Latin American countries and Spain, in a note published on October 6th under the signature of Vania Alexia Rodríguez.
This figure is consistent with the 33% reported by the Spanish newspaper El País, in a report published this Sunday, October 25, which adds that Aeroméxico, Volaris and American Airlines cut a large part of their routes to the destination.
The report in El País, which cites data from AFAC, states that in 2024, the terminal's first year, 1,117 operations were carried out, and that in 2025 they dropped by almost half, to 689, without specifying the scope of those figures.
The airport figures, published by El Tiempo de Monclova, indicate that passenger numbers remained almost unchanged between the two years: 1,233,000 in 2024 and 1,244,000 in 2025. These are different indicators, flights and passengers, which do not necessarily evolve in the same direction.
Independent aviation consultant Fabricio Cojuc pointed out in the same cited note that in June 2024 there were flights to 12 international destinations and that, as of the date of that information, only four remained: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Miami, served by American, Delta and United.
The hotel industry is also down
Hotel occupancy continues its downward trend, according to figures from the Quintana Roo Tourism Secretariat, reported by Uno TV and El Imparcial. Hotels in Tulum averaged 63.7% occupancy between January and July 2026, compared to 72.7% during the same period in 2025, a decrease of nearly nine percentage points.
Uno TV adds that the annual average went from 74.9% in 2024 to 73.8% in 2025, an adjustment of 1.1 points that makes this year's decline seem small.
The weekly reports from the General Directorate of Tourism of Tulum also show the volatility of the destination: 77.1% average occupancy from April 4 to 10, 59.5% from April 11 to 17 and 53.2% from April 25 to May 1.
The Tulum archaeological zone received 257,978 visitors between January and March 2026, 33.1% less than the 385,879 of the same quarter of 2025, according to data from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) reproduced by Diario de Yucatán.
The Riviera Maya News, which also cites INAH, adds that 2025 ended with just over one million visitors, one of the lowest totals in more than a decade.
The director of the INAH Center in Quintana Roo attributed the slowdown to the increased fees, according to Luces del Siglo in its September 3 edition, while El País, which attributes the data to INAH, reports 74,385 visitors in September 2024 and 22,100 in September 2026.
The same newspaper reports that the controversy over the Jaguar Park was settled this year with the removal of fees of up to 515 pesos, and that today only those who wish to enter the ruins pay: 265 pesos for foreigners and 80 for Mexicans.
Tulum relegation vs. national balance
Federal Tourism Secretary Josefina Rodríguez Zamora reported on August 13, during President Claudia Sheinbaum's morning press conference, that Mexico closed the first half of the year with 51.1 million international travelers, 7.7% more than a year earlier, including 24.5 million overnight tourists.
According to information published by Diario de Yucatán, the three cities that hosted the World Cup, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, registered an increase of more than 36% in tourists during that period, and the Secretariat seeks to expand its presence in other markets in the face of the decline in the United States, associated with fewer air frequencies.
Data from the agency itself, published by La Verdad Noticias, indicates that cultural tourism represented 36.3% of the segments consumed between August 2025 and June 2026, compared to 15% for sun and beach tourism.
The international context
The UN Tourism World Barometer, published by the agency formerly known as the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), indicates that international arrivals grew by 0.4% in the first half of 2026, and the agency lowered its forecast for the year to between 1% and 2%, compared to the 3% to 4% estimated in January, due to geopolitical volatility, including the conflict in the Middle East.
While the series are not strictly comparable, as they measure different periods and universes, Mexico's advance in international tourists, of 4.5% between January and July according to Sectur, easily surpasses the world average.
In April, Claudio Cortés Méndez, commissioner in Tulum for the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC), attributed a 10% cancellation rate in Riviera Maya reservations to the conflict with Iran, as he told Quintana Roo Hoy.
Sargassum, prices… more reasons
However, other causes are being discussed at the destination itself. The El País report includes testimonies about prices being higher than in other parts of the region and about the sargassum seaweed; and according to the same report, NASA identifies 2026 as the year with the highest concentration of the seaweed in the Caribbean and warns that its decomposition releases hydrogen sulfide, with potential effects on ecosystems and tourism.
From the Government, Secretary Rodríguez Zamora has denied that there is a crisis and attributes the low attendance to the low season, with an occupancy rate close to 50%.
Quintana Roo's Secretary of Tourism, Bernardo Cueto, stated that Tulum's hotel supply is now double what it was five years ago and that prices will adjust accordingly, according to Uno TV.
While President Sheinbaum predicted that the destination will recover and her government is promoting the Tulum Renace campaign, with free access to beaches and sargassum cleanup, Governor Mara Lezama announced routes from Montreal and Toronto, according to El País.
At the National Palace, the general director of Mundo Maya, Manuel Jaime Ramírez Camacho, indicated that the high season runs from November to March and that reservations have already been made with other airlines; the president cited the return, on October 24, of the routes of Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet and United, according to the media outlet Plano Informativo.
Hotel occupancy, air passengers and visits to the archaeological zone are the three indicators that this text covers and at the end of the high season, they will allow us to compare the announced recovery with the documented drop up to October.
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