MEXICO: Quintana Roo State Surpasses 100,000 Hotel Rooms

The state of Quintana Roo has surpassed 100,000 hotel rooms, making it the state with the largest tourist infrastructure with Cancun and Riviera Maya leading the way.

Darío Flota Ocampo, director of the Tourism Promotion Council of Quintana Roo, says the state officially has 101,000 hotel rooms, and that by next year, another 3,000 will be added.

The Tourism Promotion Council says they have recorded an occupancy decrease of 0.7 percent compared to the same period last year, however, he says the decrease is due to the increase in hotel rooms adding that they have to increase marketing efforts to fill the additional rooms.

Since September 2017, 749 new rooms were generated by the construction of Riu Costa Mujeres hotel with another 1,600 rooms from the Atelier Playa Mujeres complex.

By the end of 2018, another 1,000 rooms will be opened, including the Marriott Renaissance in Puerto Cancun and the expansion of the Iberostar Cancun hotel.

A the end of 2017, Xcaret Mexico Hotel opened in Riviera Maya with 900 rooms. In mid-2018, 744 more rooms will become available in hotels The Reef, Saint Regis, Kanai and Nickelodeon.

According to the firm Marketing Consultants, it is expected that during 2018, Cancun will have a tourism increase of 3 percent.

Although other sectors of the Mexican economy may suffer in the event of an eventual failure in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, no expert warns of any impact on tourism activity, says the company.

The Secretaría de Turismo de Quintana Roo announced from the beginning of 2018 and over the next 10 years, more than 30,000 hotel rooms will be built in the northern areas of Quintana Roo adding that at least 3,000 are already authorized and under construction in Cancun.

The agency adds that over the last six years, the National Bank of Foreign Trade has granted more than 36 billion peso of investment support for the construction of more than 13,000 rooms in Mexico of which over 6,000 are located in the state of Quintana Roo.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: Emirates To Commence Flights To Cancun

The Mexican government has reached an agreement that will soon see a United Arab Emirates plane land on Mexican soil.

The announcement was made by the Secretary of Tourism, Marisol Vanegas and Lizzie Cole, representative of the Tourism Promotion Council of Quintana Roo who say that the Emirates flight would bring the Dubai market to the Mexican Caribbean.

While Lizzie Cole points out that there are no visitor figures available from the Middle East, Arab princes have vacationed in the region.

The new flight, which is expected to begin this year, will be a luxury flight from Dubai to Mexico City and eventually, to Cancun.

We know that this is a very special tourism niche that requests certain requirements in terms of treatment, food, culture and we are preparing ourselves.

Dubai is very important because it is a hub, so this flight, will allow us to access tourism from many other countries including India, she explained.

The news came as Mexico participated in the Arabian Travel Market 2018 in Dubai and was visited by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, governor of Dubai, during the opening of the largest commercial travel event and tourism in the region.

Emirates has 159 destinations to 85 countries and transports more than 59 million passengers per year from its hub in Dubai.

Last year, the company expressed interest in flying Dubai to Mexico City to Cancun, however legalities delayed the initiation of these new flights.


Tourism Observer