Beautiful beaches, cenotes, archaeological sites, Pueblos Mágicos and other attractions are bringing more and more people to visit the city of Mérida this summer.

According to trips purchased on the travel booking portal Despegar, the capital of Yucatán is the third fastest-growing national summer vacation destination for Mexican tourists, showing a 41% growth in domestic trips booked on the service compared to last summer.

Only Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Mexico City were ahead of Mérida, growing 77% and 57% respectively. Classic tourist destinations like Puerto Escondido, Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas showed lower growth than Mérida.

But Mérida is still not on the list of the top seven destinations that account for 47.57% of domestic tourism: Mexico City, Acapulco, Cancún, Guadalajara, Veracruz, Puebla and Mazatlán.

Of all the trips booked on Despegar, 67% were to destinations in Mexico, while the rest were to other countries.

According to Ezequiel Rubin, Despegar’s Mexico country manager, the peak summer season for Mexican travelers is between July 15 and 28.

In an interview with the newspaper Novedades Yucatán, Rubin said that this year Mexicans are looking for new destinations to visit, which he considers a good thing because it will promote domestic tourism.

Despegar is offering a new set of special promotions for domestic travel in Mexico, which will be available between July 1 and 7 and will include options for different budgets.

According to Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marquéz, Mexicans will spend 36.6 billion pesos (US $1.9 billion) on hotels this July and August, 3.6% more than in 2018. And 9.1 million people will take domestic flights, 4.1% more than last year.

Yucatán Tourism Secretary Michelle Fridman Hirsch said the good performance is the result of collaboration between the state government, private companies and other states to connect Mérida to more air travel routes across the country.

Last year, direct flights to Mérida began from Chihuahua City and León, Guanajuato. In 2019, travelers will be able to fly direct to Mérida from Oaxaca city, Hermosillo, Sonora, and Tijuana, Baja California.

Source: Novedades Yucatán (sp), El Economista (sp)