Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.- According to El Sudcaliforniano, the tourism sector in Los Cabos faces a 2026 marked by various external factors that have begun to impact the arrival of international visitors, mainly from the United States and Canada, according to the representative of the National Business Tourism Council (CNET) in the destination, Mauricio Salicrup.
He is also the secretary of the Council of the Los Cabos Hotels Association and warned of a significant decrease in the main source markets in the first quarter of the current year.
During the first three months, the U.S. market saw a 49 percent decrease compared to the previous year, Canada’s market 23 percent, and the domestic market 16 percent.Mauricio Salicrup, CNET representative in Los Cabos
External factors put pressure on the destination
Salicrup highlighted that, although Mexico will host the World Cup, the benefit will be limited for destinations like Los Cabos. “Whenever there is an event of this nature, Los Cabos’ natural tourism is affected to some extent”, he said, pointing out that visitor concentration is directed to the host cities.
He emphasized that another factor affecting the destination is the perception of insecurity in the country, which has influenced the travel decisions of foreign tourists, despite promotional efforts.
“We have to take into account that this beginning of the year experienced an environment of insecurity that permeated foreign perception, even though the Los Cabos Tourism Trust (Fiturca) promotes and clarifies what Los Cabos is versus what happens in the rest of the country, it still affects us because there is always a decrease due to companies over there sending notices to employees prohibiting travel to Mexico for safety.”
To this are added international factors such as the conflict in the Middle East, which has raised fuel costs and, with it, the price of plane tickets to the destination. Highlighting that after Spring Break, Los Cabos registers some of the highest airfare rates from the United States.
Lack of resources for promotion
In this scenario, he called for strengthening the care of the destination and the visitor experience to promote word-of-mouth recommendations about Los Cabos.
He added that the hotel sector, in coordination with Fiturca, is working on strategies to recover demand during the summer season, despite the budget limitations Fiturca has faced.
“Even though we have not received income from the Finance Secretariat for the trust, we are working so that all these things that go against the destination are not so impactful and we can recover the volume.”
Source: El Sudcaliforniano
