In September, Los Cabos received 19.4% more domestic tourists by air, while in the international segment the growth was almost 40%, according to data from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP). For this reason, the destination has other markets in its sights, with ambitious goals.
“For 2022 we have a differentiated strategy, by markets. In the United States we are already working on it, we already know what works, how we have to remain relevant. We have to recover markets that are just returning, such as Canada, where we could even double the flow of Canadians compared to 2019 ”, he explains to Expansion in the framework of Los Cabos VIP Summit 2021.
Los Cabos hopes to achieve this through air connectivity. While the US market responded to an increase in weekly frequencies – which went from around 400 to 500 between 2019 and 2021 – from Canada the arrival of new airlines such as OWG and Flair Airlines is expected.
“When the US market opened in June 2020, we had to do a punctual job to inform the protocols and the tests. [de COVID-19], which are very easy. Today they already take for granted that Los Cabos is an aspirational and quality option, but that work that we did months ago, today we have to do it in Canada, where people have not left in 20 months ”.
They go through Australia and New Zealand
In addition to targeting the North American market, Los Cabos seeks to attract more travelers from the European region – specifically the United Kingdom – and from Australia and New Zealand.
“Sometimes we think that Australia is a market that is very far away, but sometimes we forget that the closest it has outside Asia is the United States, and there the connection is Los Angeles, where 10 to 12 full daily flights arrived of Australians who stay a month, and come to Los Cabos ”.
The trust has partnered with Visit California, in the United States, to take advantage of the long stays of this segment, of approximately one month, which takes it to make trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Los Cabos.
The trust is a body made up of private initiative and that obtains its resources mainly through the collection of the Lodging Tax, which in 2019 represented around 260 million pesos (mdp) in resources, an amount that increased to 160 mdp due to the drop in hotel occupancy due to the pandemic, which for this year came to represent approximately 200 million pesos.