Cancun was one of the most popular destinations of the pandemic, regularly exceeding visitor levels set in the Before Times. Mexico was open, Americans were traveling, and it was an easy place to go. Plus hotels quickly set up easy ways for guests to test before returning home. (Those tests almost always came back negative.)
What’s never made sense to me is booming tourist business in Cancun during summer – and not just from cooler climates! Cancun airport is reporting a record-breaking summer. And at the same time, work is proceeding to grow infrastructure around the airport. Colosio boulevard, which enters Cancun International Airport, is seeing two hour delays at peak times (6 a.m. – 10 a.m. into the airport and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. departing it).
Tourists can be seen abandoning taxis and walking into the facility. Officials are recommending leaving an extra hour to get to the airport compared to usual journey time. Traffic lights have been removed to keep vehicles flowing in, so those on side streets have even greater difficulty than normal.
On top of a new tourist tax, military having to patrol the beaches to clamp down on drug violence, and the ubiquitous possibility of running into Senator Ted Cruz, this traffic doesn’t make Cancun an appealing destination. Let alone in summmer.
