Amid concerns over occupancy rates dropping below 60%, a significant number of resorts & hotels in Cancun have begun offering nightly rates for as little as $9—up to 70% less than during the summer. But why is this happening?
Several reasons. First and foremost, with holidays in northern countries like the United States and Canada coming to an end, the destination is receiving way fewer visitors.
But we are afraid that’s not the only reason. According to official data, the destination has experienced a steady decline in arrivals throughout 2024.
According to experts, this is explained by the opening of Tulum’s new Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport (TQO) nine months ago, which has directly impacted the number of tourists arriving directly into the city.
With 2.3 million inbound passengers in August, Cancun International Airport (CUN) saw a reduction of 14.1 percent in visitors compared to the same month last year.
During the summer, hotels in otherwise high-demand destinations like Isla Mujeres saw a reduction of up to 15 percent in arrivals, as per the Association of Hotels of Cancun, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres.
In fact, between January and August, Cancun experienced a total drop of 5.5 percent in air passengers—a figure that keeps growing.
A couple of weeks ago, local authorities urged hoteliers to launch aggressive marketing campaigns with reduced accommodation prices to prevent the closure of establishments during the fall, which is already a tough season for the sector.
In response, popular travel platforms like Booking, Kayak PriceTravel, Trivago and the powerful Expedia are now offering hotel rooms with discounts that range from 10% to 70%.
This translates to travelers being able to find rooms as low as $9 at standard accommodations, and as little as $90 at all-inclusive resorts, where prices don’t normally drop below $140 per night per person.
The deals don’t stop at room rates, which are probably the biggest expense when traveling abroad. Some hotels have gone a step further, offering free airport-hotel shuttles, complimentary theme park tickets and even welcoming dinners at no extra cost.
These generous and unusual offers are driven by the alarmingly low hotel occupancy rates reported by the Quintana Roo Tourism Secretariat, where we can see that Isla Mujeres reached 61.2%, Puerto Morelos 51.2%, Costa Mujeres 69.8%, Tulum 67.8%, Cancun 63.9%, Riviera Maya 63.7%, Cozumel 43.1% and Costa Maya a disastrous 39%.
According to Jesús Almaguer Salazar, president of the Association of Hotels of Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres (AHCPIM), offers like the ones mentioned above are common during the shoulder season because “they help to overcome the low season, which is now harder since the summer was not as profitable as we expected.”
While these stats may look a bit negative, this actually presents a unique opportunity for travelers who have long wanted to cross Cancun off their bucket lists but haven’t been able to do so due to the crazily high prices. But hurry up!—estimates suggest that numbers will stabilize by November so prices will rise again.