Tourism Takes a Downturn in Start to 2025

Since tourism is such a big part of people’s lives in the Riviera Maya and the economy, when tourism falters a bit, it is noticeable. In recent years, tourism has been up and down with disruptions like the pandemic. You would think that tourism should be coasting along just fine now, but we are in another slump now. So why is tourism down for the Riviera Maya in the beginning of the 2025? There are several factors that are coming into play and things that will likely affect the rest of the year as well. Let’s break it down and address what is going on with tourism. 

At the end of this article, we will offer some solutions or ideas that might boost tourism for the future. 

The Biggest Factor Might Be Economic Uncertainly Up North

U.S. citizens make up the majority of tourists arriving to Mexico for vacations. The second largest national group is Canadians (see chart below). After the recent presidential election in the United States, a trade war was started that affected these two countries as well as most others. The uncertainty of tariffs and how the overall economy will fare has had people cutting back on vacation plans or pausing them. 

Canadians are traveling a lot less to the United States this year but are still traveling abroad. This should be good news for Mexico, although expectations should be tempered with the costs of flights being higher and what top economist are predicting a recession for the Canadian economy this year. The second largest group of visitors by country is also cutting back on discretionary spending, i.e. vacations. 

Flight Prices to Mexico 

People often comment about flight prices and how they are affecting the decision-making process to visit Mexico. Since flights for a trip are a big chunk of the trip expense, it is very noticeable when prices go up. Globally flights are lower than average so far in 2025, but some flights to Mexico are more expensive. Why is this? Part of the reason is that Mexico has been raising the TUA (Airport Use Fee) to fund infrastructure improvements. On January1, 2023 Mexico raised the TUA 77% and there have been other smaller rises in subsequent years. So, if your feel that flight prices have been a little higher in the past few years, this might be one of the reasons. 

The TUA, which is part of the overall ticket price, is used to cover essential airport services, including infrastructure maintenance, security, and passenger amenities, as well as funding airport expansions. If you fly into the Cancun Airport the TUA for departing international flights is about $50 USD. This will be included in your ticket price. There is also the VISITAX (another fee that tourists pay that fly) that is about $36 USD that is paid at the airport. 

Flight prices could be one of the reasons there are fewer people arriving to the Riviera Maya so far this year, as we will see in the next segment. 

Flight Arrivals Are Down to the Riviera Maya

Recently we wrote about the airlines cutting service to the Tulum Airport because of a decline in demand. But it is not just Tulum Airport that is seeing less passengers arriving. The two other large airports servicing the Riviera Maya are seeing a decline in arrivals as well. Asur (Airports of the Southeast), which manages several airports including Cancun International Airport, and the Cozumel Airport has had these reports. 

From 2024 to 2025 year-to-date show:

International arrivals to Cancun were down 6.9%. Domestic arrivals were down .02%. 

International arrivals to Cozumel Airport were down 22.3%. Domestic arrivals were down 2%.

You might say, well the Cancun & Cozumel Airports are seeing less arrivals because the Tulum Airport started service. This can be part of the reason, but these are based on year-to-date numbers from January to April in both 2024 to 2025.  Between the Cancun Airport and the Cozumel Airport there was a drop in arrivals of 563,423 persons.

We only have the international arrivals to Tulum Airport for the first quarter of 2025 which was 129,812. Since we do not have the numbers of domestic arrivals, we can roughly estimate the number because international arrivals are usually 70% of airport traffic in the Riviera Maya. So, the total number of passenger arrivals could be near 185,445. Both the Cancun & Cozumel Airport were down a combined 22.3% or 617,773 passenger arrivals over the first quarter of 2024. So, if you added the arrivals together of the three airports, this would mean the area still lost 432,328 passengers arriving to the area. 

The Riviera Maya is Getting Expensive

Probably the second thing that people comment on is the affordability of a vacation to the Riviera Maya. Of course there are the flights which can be more expensive, but what about the rest of the trip?  The world is getting used to inflation since the Covid pandemic, but it is not equally distributed. For example, the United States saw a rate of inflation of 2.9% for 2024, compare this to Mexico’s rate of 4.72%. Inflation in Mexico rose double digits for food and energy in late 2024. Add in the fact the minimum wage was raised by 12% on January 1, 2025, and you can see the pressure businesses have to pass on those extra expenses to customers. 

Food, all those air-conditioned hotel rooms, and paying staff to wait on people is adding up for business owners. but what about those condos for rent on Airbnb? Those might be more expensive, as we will net talk about this. 

Remember when Airbnb started making everyone pay taxes?

Sometimes laws take a while to catch up to new business models. On October 1, 2020, Airbnb sent out messages to property owners in Mexico that taxes would be taken out automatically or you needed to set up your own business account and basically pay your taxes. Mexico is regularizing and updating things and making it less a wild west. Airbnb also raised user fees for hosts. Add in better algorithms for maximum profit and customers are seeing the effect in higher prices. 

Airbnb is also responsible for collecting the local lodging tax that is applicable in Playa Del Carmen. The city raised this to 25 pesos per room per night in 2022. This is less than $10USD for a week stay but is another tax on tourism. 

We also live in an unusual real estate/rental market. Almost everything is bought with cash, so there are no mortgages and the main thing property owners have to think about is HOA and maintenance/cleaning fees. Some owners will prefer not to rent for a low price because it is not worth the hassle, or they might take it off the short-term market and rent long term. There are also greedy owners that post exorbitant prices for what they offer. This combined with many factors is keeping the rental rates higher as well. 

The Riviera Maya has Gone Upscale

Playa Del Carmen was once a small fishing village with basic apartments for rent by the beach. My oh my how standards have changed over the years. The Riviera Maya is offering much more to those seeking a more comfortable and luxurious trip to the area. There are Michelin starred restaurants in the Riviera Maya now, a Cirque du Soleil show and resorts with world class entertainment and food. One of the reasons the Riviera Maya is more expensive is because the offerings are greater now. 

The Commercialization of the Riviera Maya

There are not actually a lot of free things to do in Playa Del Carmen. Yes, you can walk 5th Avenue and go to the beach, but even with these examples, there are ample places to get a drink, ice cream, rent a beach bed or go out to eat. Unlike some tourist destinations, there are not great parks to sit in, boardwalks to stroll, free museums, or great public buildings to visit in Playa Del Carmen. Tulum has issues with even getting to the beach. There are very few free public access points in Tulum. The alternative is paying about $50 USD for food consumption at a beach club to enjoy your day at the beach.  

The commercialization of everything puts a squeeze on tourists where each turn is another payment for something.  

The Exchange Rate Between USD and Mexican Peso

For the first quarter of 2025 the average exchange rate has been 20.34 Pesos to the USD. This is higher than the averages of the past 5 years. While the exchange rate fluctuates, the general trend is a strong Pesos putting further stress on tourists looking at the overall cost of a vacation to the Riviera Maya. 

Taxis and Rip Offs

One of the top comments we hear from readers for the reason people don’t like to come to the Riviera Maya are the taxis. From the moment you arrive at the Cancun Airport you are affronted by taxi workers. Since there are no official taxi prices from the airport nor meters, prices fluctuate to whatever drivers want to charge. 

The rip-offs and scams don’t stop there. They continue during your vacation. Everything from restaurants adding tips into the bill, beach clubs overcharging, or to the stores offering tax free shopping, there are a lot of scams and not so honest people trying to make a buck. It all adds up and tourists get tired of it. See our article about 27 possible scams that can happen in Playa Del Carmen. 

Once places start to get a reputation as scamy or a lot of rip-offs, they lose some of their appeal. This is a part of the reason why some tourists are not coming back. 

Lastly, Seaweed and Condition of the Beaches

Since 2014 there have been issues with seaweed washing up on the beaches of the Riviera Maya. Each season, people see posts and ask questions about how the seaweed in will be in (x amount of time). Nobody likes to book a beach vacation and have the possibility of not being able to swim in the ocean or smelly beaches. Some years and seasons have been pretty bad, other than that, people have gotten used to the situation and are a little more tolerant of it now. However, it looks like we are in for a bad year concerning seaweed. 

We recently wrote an article talking about the seaweed situation now and what the forecast is for this year. There are already record-breaking amounts out in the Atlantic Ocean now. This points to a bad year for the beaches of the Riviera Maya and will possibly reduce the numbers of visitors as well. 

In addition to issues with seaweed, erosion has affected the beaches especially in the center of Playa Del Carmen. In the past decade they have progressively gotten narrower, but the number of visitors is growing, leading to crowded beaches or people going to other beaches in the Rivera Maya for that perfect beach day. 

Conclusion

The Riviera Maya is facing a downturn for the start of 2025, and it looks like it might be a year of slower tourism. This does give places like Playa Del Carmen time to think about what they can do to make the destination more attractive to tourists. Some of the issues are natural and there is not so much that can be done about them. Other things, well there are some ideas out there. Here are some possible solutions or helpful ideas to improve tourism. 

• Economic Downturns. Places like the Rivera Maya do need to diversify away from tourism. Whenever there is an economic downturn, the local economies really hurt. This also goes hand in hand with becoming more sustainable. The government is aware of this and has started a little on this. 
• Flight Prices & Arrivals. Mexico does need to balance the need to pay for infrastructure and also keep tourists arriving. It does seem fair that travelers that use airports help pay for them through their tickets. To make tourism more attractive, airlines and hotels can team up to make package deals and offer better value. 
• The Riviera Maya is Expensive. Mexico is known as a cheaper destination to visit. However, as Mexico grows and standards rise, there is a misconception about prices. Perhaps marketing parts of Mexico under a different light will help align people’s expectations and what prices they are willing to pay. Tours and hotels are a bit complicated to bring down prices because contacts often don’t allow business owners to offer different prices from booking sites. There are a lot of middlemen that dive up these costs. 

• The Commercialization of the Riviera Maya. The City of Playa Del Carmen should invest in parks that people will actually use and enjoy (for free). Tree lined streets and more nice places to walk other than 5th Avenue in Playa Del Carmen would be welcomed. Streamlining the building codes to make Playa look a little more harmonious. People love places like Mykonos. Why? It is a beautiful place to walk around and take photos. The place has good design, and it works very well with the climate. Imagine several streets with tunnels of bougainvillea with similar colored buildings on both sides? It would be an instant tourist attraction, something free to do, and promote the area by all the photos that people will share. Playa needs to focus a little more on the city aspects because the beaches are not getting better. 

• Taxis and Rip-offs. If the taxi union made an app that worked like UBERs, there would be no chance UBER would enter the market. But they have not done this, nor have they added meters. There also is not a taxi desk with fixed prices and tickets to buy your transportation, something that other airports in Mexico have. Since the taxis have not done much to change their reputation, and there is a direct line between the taxis reputations and it is affecting tourists’ opinions of the area, a consensus needs to be agreed on to break this stalemate. For some of the other scams, there is a consumer protection agency in Mexico called Profeco. It is not the easiest to report something, but the government is working on protections for visitors. 

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Mr.Yucatan

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