Quintana Roo Dominates Mexico’s Tourism Revenue

Cancún, QRoo — The federal government's Sectoral Tourism Program, published on September 15 in the Official Journal of the Federation, contains a diagnosis stating that tourist arrivals to the country by air are concentrated in four destinations, which together represent 80.4% of the total: Cancún (43.8%), Mexico City (17%), Los Cabos, Baja California Sur (10.8%), and Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (8.8%).

The program establishes that existing inequalities create conditions for destinations like the Mexican Caribbean to record the highest concentration of hotel supply, the highest occupancy levels, the best air connectivity, and the highest volumes of international air traffic in Mexico.

"In 2024, Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur, and Nayarit captured the majority of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in tourism, concentrating 75.1% of the total investment in the country, summing $2,870.9 million dollars, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism. This marked concentration evidences the need to reorient efforts toward other regions," states objective 2.2 of the document, whose goal is to promote the attraction of investments in tourism infrastructure in states and municipalities.

It is added that 48% of the supply of lodging rooms is concentrated in seven states of the republic: Quintana Roo, Jalisco, Mexico City, Veracruz, Nayarit, Guerrero, and Guanajuato. Therefore, the development of regions with tourism potential and less economic dynamism must be promoted.

"Investment, as well as human and financial resources, are concentrated in consolidated sun and beach destinations, relegating to a second plane rural communities and other areas of the country with high potential for tourism development. This dynamic creates a significant gap in regional development, where localities with rich biocultural diversity and unique attractions lack the opportunities and necessary infrastructure to boost tourism," is mentioned in the diagnosis.

To overcome these inequalities, the program proposes, among other things, "a new promotion model, which must find the correct mechanism so that, with austerity, greater specific public resources are dedicated for that purpose, regardless of whether they are channeled through branch 21 or another branch, to strengthen Mexico's tourism positioning in the world."

That is, it proposes public-private collaboration schemes, taken from countries like Spain or Australia, which "operate with government funds and partnership programs with the industry to boost international and national tourism."

In summary, to overcome the concentration of the benefits of tourism in only a handful of five or six cities in the country, the Sectoral Tourism Program outlines six objectives: foster regional and community development in less developed areas; promote the attraction of investments in tourism infrastructure in states and municipalities; develop tourism policy and governance for the benefit of the national tourism sector; increase competitiveness and innovation in the tourism sector; promote sustainability in tourism destinations and products across the national territory; and foster the diversification of markets and tourism destinations across the national territory.