The State of Quintana Roo, which is home to major Mexico tourism destinations including Cancun, Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Holbox and Tulum, is launching a new tourism board. The new Quintana Roo Tourism Board will manage the brands that make up the state’s tourism sector, with the aim of creating a unified promotional strategy across the entire state.
Darío Flota Ocampo will lead the new tourism board. He has also served as the director of the Riviera Maya and Cozumel Tourism Boards for over seven years, as well as the director of La Salle Cancun University’s Institute of Tourism Investigations for over 10 years.
In a written statement Flota Ocampo said that each destination will still maintain its unique identity, but that the unified tourism board would also be able to showcase the strengths of the state as a whole. The new organization plans to launch a marketing, advertising and public relations campaign in the United States to promote both business and leisure travel, with a focus on the region’s natural beauty, history, ecotourism experiences and off-the-beaten-path areas.
The move comes as the Quintana Roo is continuing to show strong tourism growth despite the recent concerns in the consumer media regarding security. According to the latest numbers from the Quintana Roo Tourism Board, 16.9 million visitors traveled to Cancun and the Riviera Maya in 2017, up 5.3 percent from the previous year. The tourism board said that it expects to end this year with an additional 4 million national and international tourists, as well as the addition of approximately 4,000 hotel rooms.
That tracks with what other travel industry studies have shown recently regarding the destination. According to Allianz Global Assistance’s most recent summer travel study, Cancun remains the top travel destination this summer for the second year in a row, with 15.72 percent of U.S. travelers surveyed planning a trip there.
Cancun was also a particular hotspot over this year’s Easter holiday period. According to the Mexico Tourism Board, during the month of March Cancun International Airport saw 2.08 million arrivals, an increase of 14.5 percent over the same month last year. Of those, 1.56 million were international visitors arriving for a vacation, with the top source markets being Toronto, Chicago, New York and Montreal.
Riviera Maya also continues to dominate the destinations wedding market. According to a study by Delta Vacations this past February, the area was the top location for a destination wedding, based on the number of booked hotel nights in 2017 by the tour operator’s customers with destination wedding packages.
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