30 Percent Of Tourists Come To Los Cabos For This Water Sport

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Last Updated 1 year ago

It’s on the top of the list for nearly a third of all visitors to Los Cabos.

What is this favorite amenity or activity that’s a lure for a large part of the Mexican resort destination’s visitors?

We’ve been baiting you long enough… it’s sportfishing.

The Lure of Sportfishing

According to the Baja California Sur Secretariat of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Agricultural Development chief José Alfredo Bermúdez Beltrán, sportfishing is an important activity for the state, region, and nearly one-third of tourists visiting Los Cabos.

That’s a big chunk of the visitors coming to Los Cabos. It also results in a significant impact on the year-round economy and overall guest experience investment in Los Cabos.

It has also been a big part of the quick economic rebound that Los Cabos has been enjoying since the end of most of the tourism restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.

According to Bermúdez Beltrán, sportfishing accounts for a large part of the gross domestic product of the Los Cabos area when the significant add-on spend for dining, hotel rooms, and airport fees are factored in.

That’s why despite the shift in focus to more affluent and luxury tourism by the Los Cabos Tourism Trust, sportfishing needs to remain a key way to connect with tourists and deliver a fantastic Los Cabos experience.

Fishing For Complements

Los Cabos has recently shifted away from its old marketing focus of driving Spring Break students to areas that traditionally had spent a limited amount of money when they arrived.

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On understandably limited student budgets, they looked for discount rooms in Los Cabos, forcing down the average room rate for hotels, along with lower-priced food and plenty of alcohol for their college break party. Students also did not traditionally spend on additional amenities, such as sportfishing.

Now Los Cabos is starting to attract a new, more upscale type of visitor. The luxury traveler tends to stay longer, spend more on hotel rooms, and enjoy fine dining and added complimentary amenities.

In other words, sportfishing is a perfect complement for this type of traveler. Especially since it is not uncommon for a day out fishing out near Land’s End on a chartered boat to cost around $1,000 — and that’s not in pesos!

Reeling in the Tournaments

That’s also why attracting the big sportfishing tournaments is critical to the continued development of Los Cabos as the premier luxury resort destination.

Bermúdez Beltrán mentioned during his visit that only 50 sportfishing tournaments were held in Los Cabos last year.

There are hopes that the Los Cabos Tourism Trust will be able to attract many more this year now that most of the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic have been lifted, especially for international travelers.

So far, there are just a handful of tournaments on the books for Los Cabos for this year. However, local tourism officials are optimistic that many more are forthcoming because the official sportfishing season is just getting started in Baja California Sur.

It’s important because big-name fishing tournaments deliver purses of $1,000,000 and more for participants.

Those big amounts attract big-time anglers and are a perfect connection to the luxury traveler segment that is the focus for resorts and tourism departments in the greater Baja California Sur region.

It is also why the Baja California Sur Secretariat of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Agricultural Development head José Alfredo Bermúdez Beltrán is against the release of the dorado fishery, which is so critical for the success of the sportfishing industry across the state.