Even with the omicron variant, December was an unprecedented month for several Mexican tourist destinations. Some of the favorite beaches of nationals and foreigners reached their best numbers, which even led them to exceed the air traffic registered before the pandemic.
This was the case of Cancun, which in addition to remaining the preferred destination for Mexicans after Mexico City, reported monthly traffic of more than 2.5 million users for the first time in December, 9.1% higher than that registered in the same period of 2019. With this, the Cancun airport closed the year 12.4% below the traffic it had before the pandemic.
Other cases of growth occurred at the Cozumel airport, which in December registered a 20.4% increase in the total number of passengers served compared to 2019; Los Cabos, whose traffic grew 11.2%, and Puerto Vallarta, which showed an advance of 3.2%.
For Arik Staropolsky, general director of the firm STA Consultores, these results respond to the momentum that the vacation segment took during much of 2021, after the pause in the intention to travel that was registered in 2020.
“The hotel offer has grown a lot; In addition to the good work of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council, the advertising efforts of the destination’s hotel chains are added, they are the ones who advertise and, when searching, Cancun always appears in the first places ”, Explain.
With the pandemic, in addition, there was a “very interesting” phenomenon of reconfiguration of air routes. “Before, the airlines decided which planes to put depending on the profitability of the routes, but with the profitability of the business cities declining, those destinations that knew how to take advantage and sit down to negotiate with the airlines even increased connectivity”, he adds .
In line with this trend, urban destinations have not been able to recover preCOVID-19 passengers. The Mexico City International Airport (AICM), the largest in the country, closed 2021 with just over 36 million users, still 28% below 2019, when it reached a historical maximum of 50.3 million passengers. During December, it was still 10% below pre-pandemic levels.
In the case of Guadalajara, air traffic remained 12.4% below that registered in December 2019, while Monterrey observed a drop of 8.4% in the same period.
However, the high levels of infections registered in recent weeks could limit the growth of several destinations.
“We expect to see falls in January due to the new variant, since every day records are being recorded in the levels of daily infections, but we would expect a rapid decline in the subsequent months,” said Intercam Casa de Bolsa in an analysis. “The outlook for the sector is encouraging, because we expect it to be a matter of months before traffic recovers.”
For Staropolsky, 2022 aims to be a better year than 2020 and even 2021 in terms of tourist flows, but there is still uncertainty about what is here to stay.
“Leisure travel is going to continue to have a boost due to the amount of postponed trips there have been, family, celebrations and complacency,” he says. However, despite the fact that business trips are reactivated, it will be difficult for them to return. soon to pre-coronavirus levels.
