Mexican Caribbean Turns to Influencers for Tourism Boost

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Cancún, Puerto Morelos, and Isla Mujeres Hotel Association is preparing to establish a new promotional committee focused on leveraging influencers and testimonials to highlight the beauty of the Mexican Caribbean.

Rodrigo de la Peña, president of the hotel association, emphasized the need for innovation in social media promotion:

“We are creating an internal promotional committee within the association to support the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council. Influencers represent a global trend—this is the new way of marketing. Some charge for their services, while others do not. We are analyzing their origins and reach as we structure the committee,” explained the hotel industry leader.

The initiative will be funded through additional contributions from member hotels, forming a budget to compensate influencers for social media campaigns.

Digital Expertise to Lead the Effort

The new committee will be chaired by Vicente Madrigal, an expert in digital trends, with the mission of positioning the Mexican Caribbean on social media through organic storytelling and shared user experiences.

This strategy aligns with broader shifts in tourism marketing. Mario Spindola, a marketing specialist and head of the agency Use the Force, recently spoke in Cancún, noting that while the Mexican Caribbean leads Latin America in digital vacation searches, issues such as conflicts with taxi drivers and sargassum seaweed have damaged its online reputation. Traditional promotion, he argued, has failed to counteract these negative perceptions.

Spindola stressed that tourism marketing must adapt to the digital era, where consumers increasingly rely on mobile devices to make purchasing decisions based on virtual tours, images, and sounds of potential destinations.

The challenge for Cancún, he added, is to maintain its status as a tourism leader by embracing these evolving consumption patterns.