Cancún Airport (CUN) Traffic
In 2018 tourism accounted for 8.7% of Mexico’s GDP and earned the nation 22.4 billion USD in foreign currency income.
Being the gateway to one of the world’s best tourist destinations, the airport at Cancún (CUN) became Mexico’s second busiest after Mexico City’s (MEX). In 2019 CUN served 25.5 million passengers (16.5 million of them international). For reference, consider that the combined number of passengers handled by the airports in Guadalajara (GDL) and Monterrey (MTY) totaled 26.0 million the same year.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that in 2018 46.8% Cancún’s GDP was directly related to travel and tourism. Among large cities dependent on travel and tourism, Cancún ranked only below Macau (50.3%) and above Marrakesh (30.6%) and Las Vegas (27.4%).
With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on travel and tourism (passenger traffic for the months of April and May at CUN is down 97.4% from last year), the 1.7 million inhabitants of the state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún and the Mayan Riviera are located, are facing very serious economic hardship.