The state of Quintana Roo promoted its four 'Pueblos Mágicos' in the United States

In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Bernardo Cueto, Secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo.

What is the purpose of your participation in this event that we are visiting?

For Quintana Roo, being present in the U.S. is very important because it is our main tourist-generating market. We receive more than 7 million North Americans each year in our 12 well-known tourist destinations such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and today we are presenting the offer of the four Magical Towns of our state. 

Which are? 

Isla Mujeres, an island in the north of our state, a great tourist destination that has a lot of history, culture and tradition. Cozumel, another great island in Quintana Roo, a pioneer of tourism in our state. Tulum itself, which has a very rich history of the Mayan Civilization and a well-known archaeological zone. And Bacalar, the lagoon of seven colors, a wonderful place that also has very interesting stories with the fort of San Felipe, which was built to defend the town from pirates at that time.

Today we are also promoting the first magical neighborhood in Mexico, which is the historic center of our capital, Chetumal, which is the capital of our state and, in turn, the most important capital in terms of tourism in Latin America. That is why we are here in Texas, which is a state that also generates a lot of tourism, since more than 3 million Texans visit us every year. And in particular, more than 300 thousand citizens of San Antonio visit our magical towns. 

That is why we are promoting this tourism offer that Governor Mara Lezama is building around a new model of tourism development, with greater infrastructure, with four international airports in our state, a Mayan Train that will also be traveling through our destinations and many new experiences that we have to offer in a new era for tourism.

The destination is constantly evolving. What kind of new infrastructure and connectivity are they achieving? 

Today we are one of the few places in the world that has 12 tourist destinations that can be visited by land, sea and air, and this new infrastructure that we are generating leads us to be more competitive, to have an offer that allows tourists to move between our destinations in a simpler and safer way, and also with new hotel complexes. We have already achieved more than 130 thousand hotel rooms for tourist offer throughout the state. We are the destination with the largest tourist offer in Latin America, with a diversity of hotel offerings, with recreational parks, with cultural and historical experiences with the Mayan Culture that positions us as a great destination, and all this infrastructure, both public and private, is available to tourists who travel to our destinations so that they regularly have the best experience. 

Tulum Airport has just opened, what can you expect from this airport?

It has generated great expectations and has exceeded them. It began operations on December 1, 2023, just seven months ago, and today it already has more than half a million passengers mobilized at the airport, with more than 30 daily air operations, with connectivity to various cities in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and with connectivity to Panama, also opening the door to South America and soon in December with a flight from Frankfurt, Germany, we will have a flight from Europe to Tulum directly. 

It is an airport that seeks to close its first year of operation with more than 1 million passengers mobilized. We are very pleased that the tourism market, airlines and tour operators have seen in Tulum the great opportunity to expand the connectivity offer, because the flights that have been opened to Tulum are flights that were not removed from another destination in Quintana Roo, but rather they expanded the connectivity offer and that has allowed us to have greater tourist influx in the center and south of our state. 

From a sporting point of view, there are various activities such as golf… Are you promoting that aspect?

Yes, of course. We believe that sport is a segment that can attract new travelers and also enhance the image of our destinations, generating a media impact. Major sporting events around the world give brand recognition to our destinations. We have the opportunity to organize PGA tournaments, Leap golf tournaments, the Ironman in Cozumel, some events that are linked to the Tour de France. In addition, we had the opportunity to host the WTA final in Cancun, the most important WTA tournament for women tennis players, the eight best-ranked tennis players in the world held their tournament there. Therefore, throughout the state we are promoting and proposing new ways to generate sporting events that allow us to generate economic benefits, but also that generate a positive impact on our tourist destinations. 

In relation to new markets, where do you seek to promote yourself?

We have great strength in the US and Canada, and we are expanding the possibilities of attracting more tourists to all of South America with countries as important for Quintana Roo as Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Argentina, which have had great growth. In addition, we are trying to open up greater connectivity opportunities to Europe. We have 20 European cities connected directly to our airports. We are evaluating the possibility of connecting to the Middle East, with the great boom that it is having in terms of tourism and connectivity. And we will continue to promote existing routes, the 40 US routes, connecting flights from Asia, from various parts of Europe and of course possibly from the Middle East. 

This connectivity helps us to broaden our horizons, to seek out more travellers, and above all, to rely on new tourism segments: congresses and conventions, sports, products, health, nature, which can generate economic benefits and, of course, a greater presence from different parts of the world linked to our main offer, which is sun and beach tourism. 

What aspect do you think they need to consider giving more support to? 

Destinations, of course. I think it's a very open-ended idea. The only thing we're missing is snow, but we can't get it anymore. We're promoting entertainment tourism above all to generate more activities, more experiences for tourists who visit our destinations, our beaches, to find a greater contribution from the Mayan culture. And so that international tourists can recognize wonderful places of the Mayan culture of our state, get into rural and community tourism in the Mayan communities of Quintana Roo and generate an offer that allows a 360 experience for those who visit us. 

We want visitors to visit our destinations to generate an appreciation of what a great destination is, in order to achieve a return rate. Today the return rate in Quintana Roo is over 50%, and for us this is very important, there is a lot of loyalty.