Mexico City – On October 1, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that as part of the actions to boost the economy in the south of the country, a new airport will be built in Tulum, Quintana Roo, one of the entities through which the Mayan Train will pass.
As it stands now, travelers who wish to visit Tulum must fly into Cancun International Airport and take the hour and a half drive south.
In a conference at the National Palace, AMLO explained that this project will be carried out within the framework of the construction project for section 5 of the Mayan Train, whose tracks and overpasses will be in the center of the highway that connects Cancun and Tulum.
“The road is going to be completely improved, it is going to be modernized from Tulum to Cancun and in the middle there will be the train track. I apologize for the inconvenience that the works will cause, because it will take us about two years to build that approximately 126 kilometers section,” López Obrador added.
He stressed that measures will be taken to avoid traffic jams in this section, one of the most traveled by tourist who visit the area, so that vehicles can continue to travel throughout the region during the development of the project.
In addition, “I anticipate that the new Tulum airport will be built and the [Mayan Train] section from Tulum to Escárcega will [also] be completed to serve as transportation from Palenque to the Gulf… The project is advanced, we will explain everything [when the time comes],” AMLO added.
This is not the first time the government of Mexico has announced the construction of an airport for Tulum. The first announcement came in 2010 by President Felipe Calderón. The new airport planned in 2010 was projected to occupy a 1,500 hectare site in Tulum that would see three million international and local passengers each year. It never came to light.
10 years later, the project is back on the table and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is vowing that it will be built.
Though no date has been announced for the airport’s construction, the Mexican President said, “Quintana Roo is one of the fastest growing states, I can tell you that the new Tulum airport will be built.”
The President asserted that Quintana Roo would be one of the first states to recover economically after the pandemic.
Cancun has been seeing a fast rebound since reopening its doors for tourism back in June. In its first month alone, over 70,000 tourists arrived in the popular Caribbean destination. But, as prices skyrocket and some travelers search for more authentic experiences, Playa Del Carmen and Tulum to the south of the tourism mecca continue to grow.
The Tulum airport will be the state’s fourth airport joining Cancún, Chetumal and Cozumel, an island off the coast of Playa del Carmen.
Sources: Excelsior • Travel Off Path
