Puerto Vallarta’s Travel Industry Takes Slow Burn

Although the influx of tourists to Puerto Vallarta, the main beach destination in Jalisco, continues to increase, growth in 2018 is slowing down, according to the head of the Ministry of Tourism (Secturjal), Enrique Ramos Flores.

He explained that in 2017 the state recorded a growth in tourist influx close to 9 percent compared to 2016, while at the end of 2018 a growth of 4.5 percent is projected.

“This is a phenomenon that is being observed in all beach destinations; One of the reasons is that in 2017 the Caribbean beaches, which are our main competition for the US and Canadian market, were devastated by a hurricane; this benefited us,” the official said.

However, Enrique Ramos said that since December of last year, destinations such as the Dominican Republic and Cuba “are back and are being promoted aggressively, so the Caribbean has become a pole of attraction and travel agents have distributed the business “.

The head of Secturjal anticipated that the state will reinforce the promotion of the destination, particularly in North America, the main foreign market for Puerto Vallarta.

The deceleration in the growth of the tourist influx to Puerto Vallarta is also reflected in the arrival of visitors to that destination through the Vallarta airport.

According to the air traffic report of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, which operates the Gustavo Díaz Ordaz airport in Puerto Vallarta, while from January to May 2017 the number of international passengers grew 11.5 percent compared to the same period of 2016. In the first five months of this year, international travelers in that terminal grew just 4.4 percent compared to 2017.

Source: Puerto Vallarta Daily News