Mexico’s building tourism infrastructure
With major highway, airport and rail projects coming online at the same time, Mexico is preparing for the benefits and drawbacks of a rapid influx of travelers to formerly off-the-beaten-path destinations.
I will never forget my first trip to Puerto Escondido, Mexico. It was 2017, and I had set out on a four-month backpacking trip across Mexico with an ambitious plan: Travel the entire country by bus and boat, from southern Quintana Roo to the top of Baja California.
But when I hit Oaxaca, that plan immediately changed. I found Puerto Escondido, a paradise of undeveloped beaches, rustic surf lodges and stalls of hot and crispy street food served under the flickering lights of Oxxo convenience stores. The town, on the Costa Oaxaquena, opened my eyes to how far off the beaten path you could go in Mexico. I stayed for the rest of trip.
Puerto Escondido, which translates to Hidden Port, is hidden no more. In the past decade, a flurry of hotel openings and a booming boho-chic aesthetic has been infused into the once-sleepy village. Where surfers from around the world would come for perfect waves and backpackers for perfect barefoot beach bars (and perfect prices), there are now luxury design hotels and bougie beach clubs.
And now, there is also lots of traffic. A 65-mile highway connecting Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca City — 15 years in the making — opened in February. Cutting what was a 10-hour drive down to three hours, it opens the Costa Oaxaquena for long-weekend travel to Puerto Escondido and other coastal towns and is expected to bring 4,000 vehicles back and forth daily.
The highway is huge news for tourism along Oaxaca’s coast, effectively opening a new region to travelers who once shied away because of a lack of access. For those who preferred the sleepy, out-of-the-way feel that Puerto Escondido and its neighboring towns once had, it’s the end of an era and the beginning of a very different one.
The pros and cons of such infrastructure development is something destinations worldwide grapple with as they try to increase visitation in a way that spreads the tourism wealth.
But in Mexico, a staggering number of massive infrastructure projects, from highways to trains to airports, are currently in the early stages of opening. From Quintana Roo to Nayarit to Oaxaca, they are making once hard-to-reach destinations readily accessible to millions of travelers, seemingly overnight, and drastically changing Mexico’s tourism map.
Mexico’s infrastructure boom
The Oaxaca highway was one of the infrastructure projects that debuted in Mexico starting at the end of 2023 and into this year and also include a new international airport in Tulum, the launch of the Tren Maya and a highway connecting Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta.
The projects are expected to help disperse tourism from Mexico’s most popular destinations, which are more crowded than ever.
In 2023, international visitors spent a record $30.8 billion in Mexico, 10% more than the year before and a 25.4% increase compared with 2019, according to Mexico Tourism Ministry numbers.
In 2023, Puerto Vallarta welcomed nearly 4 million international arrivals, up 10% from the previous year. Oaxaca has seen a 77% rise in the number of tourists since 2020, according to a Bloomberg article that referenced figures provided by the Oaxaca-based Center for Social Studies and Public Opinion. In both Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit, international arrivals were up 10.6% year over year in 2023. And according to Quintana Roo’s tourism secretary, the Mexican Caribbean saw more than 21 million visitors in 2023, up almost 7% from 2022.
The impact of that growth is undeniable: excessive traffic, long airport wait times and a rising cost of living for locals. Something had to be done to alleviate the pressure on those areas.
“This is one of a kind, with everything happening in one year, all launched together,” said Andres Martinez Reynoso, director of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council.
Felipe Carrillo Puerto Airport opened in Tulum in December, with its first international flight, American Airlines from Dallas, arriving in March. The Tren Maya, a $30 billion project mired in environmental controversy, left the station in Cancun for the first time on Dec. 15. Once completed in June, the train’s 34 stops will connect Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas.
The highway from Jalisco’s state capital, Guadalajara, shaves the travel time to the coastal city of Puerto Vallarta by almost half, to just two and a half hours. The highway cuts through the neighboring state of Nayarit, also making the beach towns of the Riviera Nayarit easier to access.
“The new Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta highway changes a lot,” said Vanessa Perez Lamas, minister of tourism of the state of Jalisco. “It reduces travel time, but it is more than that. It improves safety and it boosts tourism .... As a government and a ministry of tourism, that’s what we’re looking for.”
The highway also connects to the newly rebranded Riviera Nayarit Airport, which plans to open a second terminal this year. Visitors taking the highway from the airport can arrive at the Nayarit coast in just over an hour.
“This is going to be the new door to the Riviera Nayarit,” said Alejandro Munoz De Cote Ortiz, who had worked to expand the airport’s capacity. “Tourists will be able to reach resorts like the Conrad in Punta Mita, One&Only Mandarina, Costa Canuva and all of these beautiful resorts with comfort and ease.”
A rendering of Riviera Nayarit Airport, which completed its first international test flight in April. (Courtesy of Visit Nayarit)
A rendering of Riviera Nayarit Airport, which completed its first international test flight in April. (Courtesy of Visit Nayarit)
The Riviera Nayarit Airport’s new terminal, shown here in a rendering, will have an initial capacity for 4 million visitors per year. (Courtesy of Visit Nayarit)
The Riviera Nayarit Airport’s new terminal, shown here in a rendering, will have an initial capacity for 4 million visitors per year. (Courtesy of Visit Nayarit)
Sleepy towns get a wake-up call
The developments will bring a mixed bag of opportunities and impacts on all fronts. The new Tulum airport helps alleviate pressure on Cancun. The new highways give travelers different options, which can help shift and disperse tourist flow.
But once-sleepy towns and beloved off-the-beaten-path destinations should brace themselves for a deluge. Many small villages and pueblos made more accessible by the Tren Maya and the two highways are not accustomed to receiving large volumes of tourists, if any at all.
With access comes job growth and economic possibilities but also the arrival of expats and a growing remote workforce that may result in gentrification.
“We should expect to see increased real estate development, economic growth in all sectors, primarily tourism and employment opportunities for the local population,” said Zach Rabinor, founder of Journey Mexico.
But he also cited significant drawbacks to the uptick in tourist traffic and development: “Environmental degradation; dilution of traditional culture and communities; and increased inflation as foreign tourism money flows to the region.”
Tulum’s new Felipe Carrillo Puerto Airport helps alleviate pressure on Cancun. (Courtesy of Mexican Caribbean Tourism Board)
Tulum’s new Felipe Carrillo Puerto Airport helps alleviate pressure on Cancun. (Courtesy of Mexican Caribbean Tourism Board)
A gate at Tulum’s airport, which opened in December and had its first international arrival in March. (Courtesy of Mexican Caribbean Tourism Board)
A gate at Tulum’s airport, which opened in December and had its first international arrival in March. (Courtesy of Mexican Caribbean Tourism Board)
Striking a balance
As exciting as some of this redistribution of tourism dollars may be for Mexico, there are also reasons for concern: Development in Mexico has gotten it wrong before, when the appetite for opportunity in some places surpassed the rate at which infrastructure could keep pace.
Take Tulum, once known worldwide as a pristine beach paradise. Overdevelopment and environmental negligence led to widespread pollution, environmental degradation and rapid gentrification.
According to the recent book “Climate Change — Recent Observations” (IntechOpen, 2023), Tulum’s growth has created risk from natural threats due to “the occupation of the territory mainly due to pressure from the tourism industry.” For example, housing has been built on mangroves that serve as natural barriers against the effects of hurricanes and flooding.
The coastal village of Sayulita also caved to insatiable tourism demand before sustainable development could catch up. In February, guests of a yoga retreat at boutique hotel La Joya Sayulita were advised to stay out of the water due to sewage pollution, a situation ongoing for years.
Many smaller destinations, having seen unforeseen consequences elsewhere, are hoping tourism growth is managed sustainably, with results ranging from success to disappointment.
“Businesses love [the new highway]. Locals, not so much,” said Heriberto Sanchez, founder of the Puerto Experience, a local tour operator in Puerto Escondido. “It is bringing a new type of disrespectful tourist. People are driving on the beaches, urinating and defecating on the beaches. There is excessive littering. Overall, it’s a very ‘we can do what we want’ attitude from the tourists.”
But Puerto Escondido has also had success at tempering growth. Last year, residents and tourists fought to prevent the development of Punta Colorada, one of Puerto Escondido’s most beloved surf spots, where the government had plans to create a commercial fishing marina. Through a local resistance movement, Salvemos Colorada, locals were able to stop the development, and now Colorada is on its way to becoming an environmentally protected area within Oaxaca.
In Quintana Roo, Bacalar has several environmental regulations in place to help keep development in check. It limits the number of hotel rooms per square foot and prohibits large buildings along the shoreline of its famed Bacalar Lagoon.
“The ecosystem is really fragile, so we need to take care of how much we develop it,” Martinez said. “Usually, we measure success in volume, but for destinations like Holbox and Bacalar, we want to be more careful with how we measure success. More people are going to go there, but we still have to maintain the idea of a small town.”
Environmental activists are deeply concerned about the potential negative impact of the region’s Tren Maya.
“The train is touted as a catalyst for tourism development that will bring much-needed tourism dollars to remote, rural, largely Mayan communities through the interior of the Yucatan Peninsula,” Rabinor said. However, he added, the section connecting Cancun with Playa del Carmen has not met environmental mitigation plans. “Although legally mandated to stop construction until they can meet the criteria, they continue to push on illegally with no consequences, disregarding environmental concerns.”
While Sayulita has its fair share of issues, the Nayarit government is taking steps to ensure that other destinations along the coast avoid similar issues.
“We want to take care of the community,” said Juan Enrique Suarez del Real Tostado, Nayarit’s minister of tourism. “Don’t make a building of six or seven floors. That is not something that will be sustainable. We are growing but with control, rules and with a lot of training for what needs to be done to sell the destination.”
While environmental and social impact is largely in the hands of government and developers, communities have successfully fought back. And responsibility also lies with travel professionals and tourists who can choose to influence responsible travel behavior and policy.
Journey Mexico recently launched its $100 per person Responsible Travel Fee, which is then donated to a nonprofit partner and supports work in different regions of Mexico.
“We have identified vulnerable regions in Mexico, like Holbox, Bacalar, Puerto Escondido, indigenous communities in the Yucatan, Oaxaca City, etc., and are in the process of liaising with the local community to get their input about the growth of tourism,” Rabinor said. “Their participation is invaluable in our understanding of their hopes and concerns for the future.”
More than 33 million people visit Mexico every year, and as a destination with so much to offer, the infrastructure projects’ capacity to expand traveler knowledge of the country’s diversity is exciting.
But hopefully it will be done with care to protect and preserve the reasons people, including me, fell in love with Mexico in the first place.
“Long-term [effects of these infrastructure projects] will depend on how well the private, government and civil sectors can collaborate to rein in the natural impulse and momentum of unbridled development,” Rabinor said, “I am hopeful that together we can draw attention to how we can all benefit in the long term.”
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