It seems to us that every month or two we're seeing a new announcement about
increased flights to Mexico. As the country has passed the 30 million tourists mark, there's a mad rush to meet demand, and not just in the main beach resort centers.
According to tourism officials, Mexico added 2.4 million new airline seats in just the past year. To put that in perspective, Costa Rica gets about that many visitors
total in an entire year! We've seen 40 new flights pop up since December, and not just from the same old cities. New routes have come to Austin, Oakland, Seattle, Denver, and Milwaukee, for instance.
In other good news for passengers,the Mexican government has ruled that the practice of charging a baggage fee for the first checked bag is illegal on international flights, paving the way for this hated practice to get forcibly dropped by American, Delta, and United. Fingers crossed.
------
Most industry people know there's a lot of ballot stuffing that goes on in the "readers polls" run by the glossy travel magazines. Topping one of those lists can dramatically change things forever in terms of awareness and bragging rights. Still, we've got to give a hearty congratulations to
San Miguel de Allende in Mexico: they showed up #1 in the world in the "Best Cities" category from
Travel + Leisure. This is on the heels of topping the similar
Conde Nast Traveler poll a couple years earler.
There were a few guests at that party too:
Hotel Matilda in that city got voted the best city hotel in Mexico and Rosewood San Miguel de Allende showed up at #2.
Congrats also to the city of
Oaxaca, which showed up as the #6 city in the world. That's an impressive feat considering all the bad press in the past couple years from the local strikes and blockades.
We have detailed reviews of 9 or the top 10 Mexico resorts in their poll. We're not sure how that Hard Rock got in there...