Travel agencies from all 32 Mexican states gathered in Tulum for the AMAV national assembly, a meeting aimed at turning the destination's domestic market into its next source of growth.
The Mexican Association of Travel Agencies, known by its Spanish initials AMAV, brought together its state affiliate presidents and the members of its National Directive Council to set commercial and promotional strategy for the months ahead. The choice of host city was not incidental.
Tulum already pulls international visitors in volume. Its standing among Mexican travelers is thinner, and that gap is the problem the assembly was built to address.
What the AMAV National Assembly in Tulum Set Out to Do
National president Levi Williams Manzanares said the gathering pulled state leaders and national board members into the same room to review the association's internal operations and to plan how affiliated agencies can drive more domestic visitors to destinations like Tulum.
The pitch to those agencies is direct. AMAV wants them to act as active promoters of the destination, packaging trips and experiences built around the specific profiles of Mexican travelers rather than relying on generic destination marketing.
"We are very glad to visit Tulum and to have our travel agents and representatives from the country's 32 states here for this council meeting. Here we work on promotion strategies and on building tourism products that respond to what the market needs," Williams Manzanares said.
Selling Tulum to Mexican Travelers
Williams Manzanares framed the domestic market as the clear opportunity. Tulum holds a solid position internationally, he said, and the next step is to make it register with travelers inside Mexico.
"We want to send the right message that Tulum is a product of interest for Mexican travelers. We are working to strengthen its presence among national travel agents and, through our international agreements, to expand its promotion in other markets as well," he said.
The logic is partly about resilience. A destination that leans heavily on foreign arrivals stays exposed to currency swings, flight connectivity, and shifts in how other countries view Mexico. A stronger domestic base spreads that exposure across a market that travels year round.
The international agreements he referenced give the association a second channel. Beyond the domestic push, AMAV maintains arrangements with tourism bodies in other countries that can carry Tulum's promotion abroad.
Fam Trips and the Shift Toward Tourism Products
The assembly was not confined to meeting rooms. Representatives took part in familiarization trips, or fam trips, across the municipality, visiting hotels, restaurants, cenotes, and other natural and cultural sites to see the local offering firsthand.
That exposure carries a commercial purpose. The agencies are expected to fold what they see into new marketing and sales strategies for the national market, which is where the association believes the largest untapped demand sits. For Williams Manzanares, promotion has to rest on something concrete.
"Today's tourism requires creating products and experiences adapted to the visitor's needs, not just promoting attractions," he said.
How Tulum Landed the Assembly
Williams Manzanares traced the event back several months, to conversations with Mario Cruz, head of the Tulum Tourism Promotion and Economic Development Trust. The two agreed that the destination needed specific actions to strengthen its promotion, and the assembly grew out of that.
"We started working as a team with the municipality, and that is where this project, which we believe will be a great success, was born," he said.
He credited the coordination among local tourism businesses, association members, and municipal authorities for making Tulum the host. Their shared concern, according to the association, is rising competition across the Mexican Caribbean, where destinations fight hard for the same visitors.
A Long Game for the Destination's Brand
Williams Manzanares was candid that this kind of work does not pay off quickly. Positioning and strengthening a tourism brand takes time and consistency, he said.
"We have to be consistent that this is important work of brand building and changing perception. Results can take months or even years, until we consolidate a solid national brand," he said.
The working sessions also looked at how to diversify the local offering and lift arrivals during the year's key seasons, two levers the association sees as central to keeping Tulum competitive.
Officials tied to tourism development at the state and municipal levels joined the assembly, among them Mario Cruz, of the Tulum Tourism Promotion and Economic Development Trust; Pablo Casas Gómez, undersecretary of tourism promotion at the Quintana Roo Tourism Ministry, known as Sedetur; and Haydée Hernández Pastrana, director general of tourism for Tulum.
Whether the strategy delivers will not be clear for a while. By the association's own measure, the proof will arrive in months or years, when the numbers show whether Mexican travelers have started to put Tulum on their own itineraries.
Should Tulum lean harder into the domestic market, or stay focused on the international visitors who already know it? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.