01Schedules
39 months
of departing seats from CUN and TQO, airline by airline
- Jan 2023 to Mar 2026
- 150 Cancún, 25 Tulum destinations
- Seats & departures by month
Answers
Who is adding capacity, and where?
← All decksOpen live deck ↗
DPAIThe Riviera Maya
DPAIThe Riviera Maya
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · IntroductionSchedules Search Bookings Movement DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · So What
The Riviera Maya Gateway
publicLive/d/riviera-maya-gateway
All changes saved
SlidesDrag to reorder
DPAIA DPAI Use Case Study
Airport & Destination Intelligence · Quintana Roo, Mexico
The Riviera Maya
Gateway
Cancún vs. Tulum: what a brand-new airport did to schedules, searches, bookings and traveler movement along one of the world's busiest resort coastlines.
CUN · Cancún InternationalTQO · Tulum International · Dec 2023
28 monthsof Tulum schedules, searches & bookings
www.getDPAI.com
DPAIA DPAI Use Case Study
Airport & Destination Intelligence · Quintana Roo, Mexico
The Riviera Maya
Gateway
Cancún vs. Tulum: what a brand-new airport did to schedules, searches, bookings and traveler movement along one of the world's busiest resort coastlines.
CUN · Cancún InternationalTQO · Tulum International · Dec 2023
28 monthsof Tulum schedules, searches & bookings
www.getDPAI.com
Setting the Scene
One coastline. Two gateways.
For decades Cancún was the only big airport on the Riviera Maya. In December 2023 Tulum International opened about 130 km down the same coast, next to the resorts that Cancún travelers had been driving two hours to reach.
CUN · incumbent gateway
TQO · new entrant
CZM · island gateway
Basemap © Esri
Before Tulum opened
~10%
of travelers landing in Cancún headed south, toward the stretch of coast Tulum now serves
The corridor
1974Cancún International opens with the new resort city
Dec 2023Tulum International's first flights, from Mexico
Mar 2024American, United and Delta start U.S. service
Mar 2026Latest schedules and searches in this study
The question
Did Tulum create new demand for the Riviera Maya, or just give existing travelers a closer door?
Source: DPAI location intelligence · pre-opening Cancún traveler paths (2023) · Tulum opened 1 December 2023
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · IntroductionThe Data Foundation
Four signals. One natural experiment.
A new airport opening next to an established one is rare. Schedules show what airlines bet on; searches and bookings show what travelers wanted; movement data shows where they really went.
02Flight search
86M
flight searches for Cancún and Tulum
- By origin market & travel month
- What else each searcher looks at
- Intended length of stay
Answers
Who is considering Tulum?
03Bookings
8.4M
air bookings into the two airports
- Fares & nights booked
- Travelers per booking
- By origin market
Answers
Who actually buys it?
04Traveler movement
669k
devices seen flying through Cancún or Tulum
- Home market on an H3 grid
- Where on the coast they go
- Before & after opening
Answers
Where did Tulum's travelers come from?
The question
When a new airport opens down the coast from an established one, does it grow the market, or split it?
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · Introduction01 · The Schedule
Tulum's biggest month was its first winter.
Monthly seats departing Tulum since opening, split by where the airline is from. Mexican airlines opened the airport; U.S. airlines piled in for spring 2024 and have been pulling back since.
Monthly departing seats · Tulum
Tulum seats
U.S. airlinesMexican airlinesCanadian airlinesOther airlines
Peak · Dec 2024
100,243
seats in one month, 5.7% of the corridor
2025 · full year
4.5%
of Riviera Maya seats flew from Tulum: 806k, against 17.2M from Cancún
Q1 2026 vs. Q1 2025
−28%
Tulum seats
U.S. airlines
−42%
same quarter
Finding
Tulum found its ceiling fast. Mexican and Canadian airlines now carry 67% of its seats, and the airport has never flown more than about one seat in 16 on the coast.
Source: Published airline schedules · departing seats from CUN and TQO by airline · Jan 2023 – Mar 2026
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 01 · The New Gateway01 · Every Route
Every Tulum route already flew from Cancún.
All 25 destinations Tulum has served since opening, largest first. Bars show when each route flew, December 2023 to March 2026; share is Tulum's slice of all Riviera Maya seats to that airport in 2025.
Tulum routes
Also served from Cancún
25 / 25
Tulum destinations. Not one new city for the Riviera Maya.
Largest route · NLU
30%
of Tulum's 2025 seats go to Felipe Ángeles, Mexico City's new airport, on Viva Aerobus, Mexicana and Aeroméxico
Meanwhile at Cancún · 2023 → 2025
−2.0M
seats a year, mostly from Mexican airlines. That is more than twice Tulum's entire 2025 schedule.
Finding
Tulum is a sampler of Cancún's network. Even on its best route it carries at most 29% of the coast's seats to that airport.
Source: Published airline schedules · departing seats from CUN and TQO by airline · Jan 2023 – Mar 2026 · share = Tulum seats ÷ CUN + TQO seats to the same airport, 2025
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 01 · The New Gateway02 · Consideration
Cancún is the default choice. Tulum is the alternative.
Of everyone who searched one airport, what share also searched somewhere else? Nearly half of Tulum's searchers check Cancún. Cancún's searchers rarely look back.
What else do they search?
Alternative searches
U.S. · Tulum searchers
47%
also search Cancún, their most-considered alternative in every market
U.S. · Cancún searchers
4%
also search Tulum, which ranks #15 among their alternatives
Search sessions analyzed
1.3M
distinct Cancún and Tulum sessions from the U.S.
Finding
Tulum searchers are shopping the Riviera Maya. Cancún searchers are shopping Cancún against the world: Mexico City, Miami, San Juan.
Source: DPAI search intelligence · alternative destinations searched by CUN & TQO searchers · % of each destination's distinct search sessions
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 02 · The Traveler's Choice02 · Interest vs. Purchase
One search in twenty. One booking in thirty.
Tulum's share of the corridor on three signals, by month of travel. Interest arrived before the airport did, spiked for January 2025, and settled. Bookings have never caught up with searches.
Tulum share of CUN + TQO, by travel month
SearchesSeatsBookings
Tulum share
2025 · searches
5.5%
of corridor searches
2025 · seats
4.5%
of corridor seats
2025 · bookings
3.4%
of corridor bookings
Bookings per search · Tulum vs. Cancún
61%
Tulum turns searches into bookings at about three-fifths of Cancún's rate
Finding
Travelers are curious about Tulum, but many who search it end up booking Cancún. Tulum's seat share sits between the two lines: airlines scheduled for more demand than has converted.
Source: DPAI search & booking intelligence · flights to CUN and TQO by origin market and travel month · published schedules for seats · by travel month
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 02 · The Traveler's Choice02 · Origin Markets
Where Tulum has a nonstop, searches become bookings.
Tulum's share of each market's Riviera Maya searches and bookings. Germans, French and Swiss search Tulum as often as Canadians do, but without a nonstop most of them book Cancún.
Share of searchesShare of bookings
Origin markets
United States
6.9%
of U.S. Riviera Maya bookings go to Tulum, close to its 7.8% share of searches
United Kingdom
0.5%
of U.K. bookings, despite 3.2% of searches. No nonstop, so they book Cancún and drive.
Home market · device panel
54%
of Tulum's travelers live in the U.S., against 30% of Cancún's
Finding
Germany is the one European market that books Tulum, and the only one that got a nonstop: Discover from Frankfurt, winter 2024–25. Spain, Italy and the U.K. never had a flight.
Source: DPAI search & booking intelligence · flights to CUN and TQO by origin market and travel month · 2024–2025 travel · 16 largest origin markets
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 02 · The Traveler's Choice02 · The Trip
Tulum isn't cheaper. It sells a different mix.
On average a Tulum booking costs about $95 less and lasts two fewer nights. Compare travelers from the same market and the gap mostly disappears. What's left is party size.
CancúnTulum
Market comparison
All markets · average fare
$325vs.$230
Cancún vs. Tulum, all bookings
From the U.S. · average fare
$234vs.$238
Same market, same price, same 4.1 nights
Smaller parties
18 / 18
markets (300+ Tulum bookings) travel to Tulum in smaller groups: 1.69 per booking vs. 1.86
Finding
The average fare gap is a mix effect: four in ten Tulum bookings are short, low-fare domestic Mexican trips. The real difference is who travels: Tulum parties are smaller in every market.
Source: DPAI search & booking intelligence · flights to CUN and TQO by origin market and travel month · bookings for 2024–2025 travel · markets with 2,000+ Tulum bookings
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 02 · The Traveler's Choice03 · Traveler Home Markets
Tulum didn't open new markets. It reallocated existing demand.
Where travelers through each airport live, on a hexagon grid, with both route networks on top. Tulum's travelers come from the same big cities that already fill Cancún's flights.
Traveler home markets · H3 grid
One demand pool, two gateways
Cancún-only home market
Shared: feeds CUN and TQO
Tulum-only home market
Brightness = traveler volume · hover any hex
Drag to pan · Scroll to zoom · Basemap © Esri
Home-market overlap · H3 grid
99%
of Tulum's travelers live in home markets that were already feeding Cancún
Tulum travelers from the U.S.
54%
against 30% of Cancún's travelers, most of whom live in Mexico
Devices with a home country
2,879
flew Tulum, against 664,778 through Cancún: a small panel, so read Tulum's map as direction
Finding
Unlike most secondary airports, Tulum's demand isn't spread thin. It is concentrated in large cities Cancún already serves: Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Mexico City.
Source: DPAI device home-location panel (H3 r3–r4) · published CUN & TQO route schedules · Jan 2023 – Mar 2026
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 03 · Where Demand Came From03 · A Market, Measured Twice
After opening, demand shifted south to Tulum.
Where arriving travelers spend their time on the coast, before and after Tulum opened. Each hexagon is colored by the airport those travelers flew into.
Traveler cells · H3 r5
Same grid, two eras
Color: airport mix, gold (CUN) to blue (TQO)
Opacity: share of travelers in this view
Hover a cell · Basemap © Esri
After opening · Tulum catchment
53
cells now receive travelers through Tulum. Every one was served 100% through Cancún before.
Southern Riviera Maya
9%
of arrivals in the southern corridor now come through Tulum
North of Cancún
<0.1%
through Tulum. The north didn't notice.
Finding
The shift is local. Tulum captures the travelers who were already heading south of Playa del Carmen, the same ~10% that used to make the two-hour drive.
Source: DPAI location panel · Riviera Maya traveler path cells (H3 r5) · CUN & TQO arrivals · Jan 2023 – Mar 2026 · TQO opened Dec 2023
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · 03 · Where Demand Came FromExecutive Summary
Tulum didn't grow the Riviera Maya. It re-routed the south.
Every signal points the same way. Tulum is a convenient second door for travelers already bound for the southern coast, and Cancún remains the market's gateway.
A second door, not a second market
Tulum peaked in its first winter. U.S. airlines have since cut back, and 12 of its 25 routes are gone.
4.5%
of the corridor's 2025 seats flew from Tulum
01 · The new gateway
Cancún is still the default
Tulum wins about 1 in 20 searches but 1 in 30 bookings. Where it has no nonstop, travelers look and then book Cancún.
47%
of U.S. Tulum searchers also search Cancún
02 · The traveler's choice
A different mix, not a cheaper trip
Tulum's lower average fare comes from more domestic Mexican trips. Its parties are smaller in every market.
Same fare
within each market, $238 vs. $234 from the U.S.
02 · The traveler's choice
Reallocated, not created
Tulum captured travelers who were already heading south of Playa del Carmen. North of Cancún, nothing changed.
99%
of Tulum travelers come from home markets that already fed Cancún
03 · Where demand came from
The answer
A new airport down the coast split the market; it didn't grow it. The Riviera Maya flew fewer seats in 2025 than in 2023, and Tulum's share has settled at about one in twenty.
DPAIThe Riviera Maya Gateway · So WhatSelected slide
Deck settings