Hotel occupancy in Tulum climbs to 45 percent, far below the union's safety line

Hotel occupancy in Tulum and the corridor running north to Puerto Morelos has climbed from about 25 percent to between 40 and 45 percent, the CROC commissioner in Tulum said this week.

Claudio Cortés Méndez, who represents the Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos in the municipality, said the destination could approach 60 percent occupancy in the coming weeks if the trend holds. He described the movement as an improvement that generates positive expectations for August.

The projection lands in the closing stretch of the summer season, the weeks that decide whether hotels along the coast keep their payrolls intact into the fall. At 45 percent, more than half the rooms in the corridor are empty at the point in the year when they should be fullest.

From 25 percent to 45 percent in the all-inclusive belt

Cortés Méndez said the recovery is concentrated in all-inclusive properties located between Tulum and Puerto Morelos, the stretch of coast that absorbs most of the region's packaged tourism. Those hotels sell through wholesalers and airlines months in advance, which is why they register movement before independent lodging does.

He did not specify how many properties the figure covers, nor the period the comparison uses.

Five occupied rooms in a 10-room hotel

The improvement has also started to reach small hotels in the center of Tulum, according to the union commissioner, where the arrival of national and foreign visitors has lifted the number of occupied rooms.

He framed the scale honestly. These establishments carry far lower capacity than the beach resorts, so filling five or six rooms in a 10-room hotel counts as a favorable result in the current season. For a family-run property downtown, that is the difference between covering payroll for the month and cutting shifts.

Sedetur put hotel occupancy in Tulum at 48.5 percent

The union's reading is not the only number in circulation, and it does not match the state's.

In its most recent weekly report, cited by regional outlets, the Quintana Roo tourism ministry placed Tulum at 48.5 percent. The same cut put the Riviera Maya at 55.6 percent, Puerto Morelos at 54.4 percent, Cancún at 69.2 percent, and Costa Mujeres at 73.1 percent, the strongest performer in the state. Costa Maya sat at the bottom with 33.2 percent. The United States remains the largest source market for the Mexican Caribbean at 35 percent of visitors, followed by Mexico at 32 percent and Canada at 16 percent.

The two figures are not measuring the same thing. Sedetur reports by destination, while Cortés Méndez was describing a corridor that spans several municipalities and leans heavily on all-inclusive properties. Both readings agree on the direction. Neither puts Tulum near the front of the state.

Industry reporting published on July 29 was blunter about the comparison. Costa Mujeres and Cancún have seven of every 10 rooms booked this summer, Isla Mujeres is the only destination in Quintana Roo operating above its own numbers from last year, and the Riviera Maya and Tulum are the corridors that have lost the most occupancy against 2025.

Cortés credits posted prices and an approved taxi tariff

The union commissioner attributed part of the shift to changes in how the destination presents itself to visitors.

"Tourist confidence is returning to Tulum, and that is very important. It has also contributed that businesses now display the prices of their products and services, in addition to taxi drivers working with a tariff approved by their union, which provides greater certainty to visitors and improves the image of the destination," Cortés Méndez said.

He also pointed to easier access to the main attractions and to measures that add transparency to how services are sold. Restaurants, hotels, and other businesses should keep their rates visible, he said, to avoid confusion and the negative reviews that follow it.

Pricing has been one of the persistent complaints attached to Tulum. Cortés Méndez has told regional outlets earlier this year that visitor costs and the destination's reputation on social media weigh directly on booking decisions, alongside the closures of hotels and service businesses that the union has tracked through the low season.

His closing appeal was to residents rather than to authorities. Cordial service and accurate information about attractions, cenotes, and services, he said, would help push occupancy back over 80 percent, a level the destination has reached in earlier periods of higher influx.

The layoff line the union says starts at 70 percent

That 80 percent target sits a long way from where the corridor is now, and the more urgent number is lower.

The union and the hotel business sector have said the real threshold is keeping occupancy above 70 to 75 percent to avoid labor adjustments during the low months. CROC has between 54,000 and 55,000 affiliated workers registered in Tulum, most of them in hotels and tourism services, and many commute between Playa del Carmen, the Zona Maya, and Tulum. In May, hotels along the Riviera Maya began applying rotating unpaid rest days to protect staffing levels rather than cut them.

The year behind those numbers explains the caution. Occupancy in Tulum fell to 49.2 percent during 2025, down from figures above 66 percent, and visits to the archaeological zone dropped 33.1 percent in the first quarter of 2026, from 385,879 to 257,978 according to INAH data.

Hotel operators expect the summer peak to arrive with the first weekend of August, carried by last-minute domestic bookings rather than advance packages. That week will show whether the 60 percent Cortés Méndez projected is a forecast or a hope, and whether the workers counting shifts in the small hotels downtown make it to September with their hours intact.

Are you seeing more visitors in Tulum this summer, or does 45 percent match what your business is living? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.