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Allianz Travel conducted their annual report to find out the favorite travel destination for Americans, and Cancun turned out to be the city that most Americans want to vacation to. The Los Cabos region that includes Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo came in second. The famed insurance company mentioned that they were able to go over 1.1 million travel itineraries from American tourists to conduct their study. These travelers included in the report started heading out to their chosen destinations on the 27th of May and will continue traveling through September 6th.
Three Mexican destinations found their way onto the list, Cancun taking the top spot followed by Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco was the 6th most visited city by American Allianz Travel customers. Mexico was the only country on the list to feature 3 destinations continuously chosen by travelers.
According to the Allianz group only around 25% of all American travelers are looking to go abroad in 2022. Of those travelers looking to venture outside of the United States most of them will travel to Mexican beaches.
The Caribbean Is Still The Area Most Americans Want To Visit
The fact that Los Cabos finds itself on the second spot on the list is noteworthy considering that most of the preferred destinations for Americans happen to be Caribbean beach cities. Cancun, Oranjestad in Aruba, Montego Bay Jamaica, Punta Cana, Nassau, Turks, and Caicos islands, and the American Virgin islands, all located within the Caribbean sea made the list of top destinations. Of the cities on the list only Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta are located on the Pacific coast. With the last location on the list being Liberia in Costa Rica which is technically not a beach city.
Los Cabos remains as the second favorite travel destination for Americans for the second year in a row, while Cancun also took the top spot on the list last year. It was actually Puerto Vallarta that made the most significant climb of the Mexican destinations on the list. In 2021 it only barely made the list at number 9 by 2022 it climbed to the sixth spot on the list.
COVID Still Seems To Worry Travelers
Los Cabos is putting up record occupancy numbers at local hotels in 2022 which certainly has helped the local economy bounce back from COVID induced losses. These record numbers in Los Cabos are helped by the fact that American travelers have returned to air travel in 2022. Flights from Mexico to the US and viceversa continue to lead the Americas as the 2 countries in the region with the most number of flights between them.
The number of flights in 2022 increased by 86% in the first quarter of the year compared to the numbers posted in 2021. Although tourists preferred the lax COVID restrictions that Mexican destinations offered travelers were still concerned with potentially contracting COVID. In another survey conducted by Allianz more than 2600 of their customers feared the arrival of another COVID wave, and how that could affect their travel plans.
Those fears were turned into a positive for the insurance company as more than 90% of the customers they surveyed ended up being interested in purchasing travel insurance from the company. Particularly to ensure that they would be covered if they contracted the COVID virus abroad. Allianz mentioned that their travel insurance packages covered baggage loss, and all sorts of accidents while abroad. It could also help travelers who were forced into quarantining after having contracted COVID abroad. Although certain COVID restrictions have returned to Los Cabos, a forceful quarantine period after contracting the virus is not part of the current mandates.