Cancun, Q.R. — The tourism sector is recovering with greater connectivity, new air routes and the arrival of cruise ships, said the director of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council (CPTQ), Darío Flota Ocampo.
Holiday demand continues as the Cancun International Airport records hundreds of daily flights and hotels register guests well into the summer months. A report by the Cancun Hotel Association shows a majority of the region’s hotels are maintaining an average occupancy rate of between 60 and 70 percent.
Due to the volume of visitors, 204 special permits have been granted that allows hotels to accommodate reservations that exceed the current 50 percent occupancy rate allowed under the orange epidemiological light.
A total of 472 hotels in Cancun and Riviera Maya have been certified under the state’s Safe Travels program. The special permit allows these hotels to operate up to 20 percent more to accommodate guests. According to the Cancun Hotel Association, the region has been operating with an occupancy rate of between 60 and 70 percent with some hotels seeing reservations into July and August.
Up until the third week of June, Cancun has operated with 63.5 percent, while Puerto Morelos averages 57.4 percent and the Continental Zone of Isla Mujeres maintained 66 percent until the weekend when it reached 70.6 percent.
Carlos Trueba Coll, the director of Cancun airport managing company ASUR, said that the airport has seen three consecutive Saturdays with more than 500 flight operations. He pointed out that although the number of operations registered has not yet reached pre-pandemic figures, they are recovering passenger numbers.
He also said that “very strict sanitary measures are still being applied according to the established guidelines,” adding that “we cannot relax these measures since the number of tourists will increase with the summer vacation period that is about to start.”
Tourism is also picking up in other areas with Cozumel receiving its first cruise ship on June 16. On June 29, Mahahual in Costa Maya is expecting its first cruise ship arrival in more than 15 months.
