Who Killed Tulum?
Greed, gringos, diesel, drugs, shamans, seaweed, and a disco ball in the jungle.
What happened to Tulum has happened before. Ibiza gave itself over to the DJs, and Mykonos fell prey to the Instagram hordes, but both places had a good run before the fall. Tulum, however, completed the full evolution of a trendy destination in record time: the arrival, in order, of backpackers, hippies, rich hippies, scenesters, and eventually bachelor parties. In January, one of the organizers of a conference called Summit — “a TED–meets–Burning Man–type learning festival for entrepreneurs” — described Tulum to me as the ideal spot for the “intimate 400-to-500-person event” spread over 21 hotels on the beach.
Paradise first opened for renovation in 1970, when the Mexican government converted mostly empty land on the Yucatán Peninsula’s northeasternmost point into a vacation destination. Cancún now welcomes 6 million visitors a year with its gorgeous beach, a strip of all-inclusive resorts, and Señor Frog’s serving tequila shots. That success led the government to rebrand 80 miles of beachfront to the south as the Riviera Maya, including what was once a quiet fishing village called Playa del Carmen, where there are now four Starbucks within ten blocks.
Tulum, meanwhile, was little more than a truck stop a few hours south, with a Mayan fortress on the beach where tour buses disgorged visitors for an afternoon. Unless you were looking to get off the grid, there wasn’t much reason to stay. Beachfront hammocks went for $10 a night, or you could sleep at the ruins, under the stars.
