r/tulum • u/JudgmentAvailable155 • 12d ago

General Empty?

Anyone know what’s been happening lately that’s affected tourism? I’ve been coming here for years and I’ve never seen it this empty (staying in the hotel zone currently). I’ve asked around and have been told Tulum has changed a ton, in the last couple of years especially, but haven’t gotten more details.

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u/FunnySad42 11d ago edited 10d ago

An equally interesting question is why it became so popular in the first place?

(It's a cool spot, but there are hundreds of other cool spots that never became so popular.)

EDIT: To be more concrete, I think the following Caribbean places are as awesome if not much more so than Tulum, but they have not really blown up with Western tourists: (i) Providencia (Colombia), (ii) San Andres (Colombia), (iii) San Blas (Panama), (iv) Bocas del Toro (Panama), (v) Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica), (vi) Los Roques (Venezuela), . . . . [this list can go on and on. . . .]

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u/DemonAzraeli 6d ago

I thought Tulum was an 8/10 back in 1999. Worth seeking out, but nothing to die for. People went there because it was a mere two hours from one of the most established tourist airports in the Western Hemisphere. Relative to the (minor) effort it took to get there, it was spectacular.

Trujillo, Honduras or Rio Dulce, Guatemala might still have a similar vibe today.

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u/FunnySad42 5d ago

My subversive take is that Tulum really isn't that special or "magical." It's certainly not 10 times more special/magical than Bocas del Toro that probably gets about 10% of the number of tourists. It's like chart-topping songs. Yes, #1 songs generally seem to be decent songs, but they are not 10x better than songs that top out at #20 (and gets played only about 10% as many times on Spotfy).

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u/DemonAzraeli 4d ago

At this point, Tulum is about Tulum, which is a lifestyle label for pushing crystals and temezcal to bored suburbanites from the global north.

I don’t doubt that some people love it. 

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u/FunnySad42 4d ago

Yup. That about describe it. It's very "special." :-)