A million reviews rank Tulum the world's happiest destination

Tulum scored a perfect 100 out of 100 in a new ranking of the world's happiest travel destinations, finishing ahead of 154 other places in a study of more than a million reviews.

The ranking comes from JustCover, an Irish travel insurance company, which collected its data in June 2026 and published the results at the end of July. The study covered 155 destinations and scored each one on how often visitors reached for the language of happiness when reviewing attractions, resorts, national parks and scenic spots.

The timing is awkward for a town whose tourism economy has been shrinking for more than a year. Federal aviation figures show international passenger traffic at Tulum's airport dropped 34 percent in the first four months of 2026, and the federal government launched a recovery plan for the destination last November after occupancy collapsed through 2025.

A perfect 100 out of 100

Soufrière, in Saint Lucia, finished second with 95.2. Oaxaca took third at 88.0, statistically level with Las Vegas at 88.0 in fourth. Maui closed the top five with 84.6.

Below them the list widens out fast. New York City scored 81.5, Cappadocia 77.5, Rio de Janeiro 75.2, Chicago 74.0, and Toronto and the Maldives tied at 71.4. Positano, sixteenth in the global table, topped the study's separate European ranking.

Tulum's perfect score does not mean every reviewer was delighted. JustCover calculated each destination's share of happy reviews against its total, then rescaled the results so the leader sits at 100. The number describes distance from the rest of the field, not a measurement of universal joy.

More than a million reviews, and the phrases that counted

The researchers searched review text for explicit expressions of happiness. The examples given in the report are blunt ones: "this place made me so happy" and "I felt genuine happiness here." Reviews that praised a place without using that vocabulary did not count toward the score.

That method measures written enthusiasm, not wellbeing. A destination climbs when a large share of the people who sat down to write a review reached for that particular word, which favors places travelers visit for pleasure over places they pass through. It says nothing about how many people came, how much they paid, or whether they would return.

It also looks backward. The reviews behind Tulum's score were written by people who had already made the trip, in many cases years ago.

JustCover attributed Tulum's result to its cliffside Maya ruins, its nature reserves, and what the report called a thriving food, nightlife and wellness scene. The company did not publish a breakdown of which venues in Tulum generated the happiest reviews.

Mexico took two of the top five

No other country placed two destinations that high. Oaxaca's third-place finish rested on its markets, its food and its Indigenous cultural weight, according to the report, which singled out the Mercado Benito Juárez and the city's role in Día de los Muertos.

Between them, Tulum and Oaxaca gave Mexico the strongest showing of any nation in the study, at a moment when the country's two most-watched tourism stories point in opposite directions. Oaxaca's visitor numbers have been climbing. Tulum's have not.

The happiest travel destination, and a 34 percent drop

Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport handled about 178,000 international passengers between January and April 2026, down from roughly 268,000 in the same window of 2025, according to figures from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency and the airport administration. That is more than 90,000 foreign visitors who did not arrive. Domestic traffic fell 25 percent over the same period.

If the pace holds, the airport would finish 2026 at around 700,000 passengers, against 1.244 million last year.

Hotels tell a similar story. Occupancy in September 2025 came in at 49.2 percent, down from 66.7 percent in September 2024, according to official figures cited when the federal recovery plan was announced. The town welcomed just over 1.3 million tourists between January and October 2025.

Tulum Renace promises 128 actions

Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez presented the plan last November. It bundles 128 measures across four pillars: regulation of tourist attractions, urban and environmental management, promotion, and infrastructure. Among the commitments are free public beach access without any obligation to buy food or drinks, and a push to land high-profile events including the Mexico Aerospace Fair and a PGA Tour tournament.

The diagnosis behind the plan named the same three culprits residents have been listing for two years: prices, restricted beach access, and sargassum through the summer months.

None of those appear anywhere in the happiness study, which is the point. JustCover read what visitors wrote after they arrived. The arrivals data measures whether they come at all.

The next reading lands with the monthly passenger counts out of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, which will show whether the summer closed the gap or widened it.

Does a perfect happiness score match what you have seen in Tulum this year? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.