Cancun’s tourism development from a Fordist spectrum of analysis

Tourism scholars in recent years have posited a global paradigmatic shift from Fordist to more post-Fordist and neo-Fordist modes of tourism production and consumption. This article provides a brief literature review of transformations in global tourism production and consumption from a Fordist spectrum of analysis. Following a discussion of tourism development in Cancun and the surrounding state of Quintana Roo, this article draws on empirical data from a survey of 615 visitors to the Yucatan Peninsula and 60 Cancun hotels to provide a contextual application of the Fordist spectrum in understanding the nature of tourism production and consumption in the region. Cancun is situated as a predominately Fordist mass tourism resort, however, analysis reveals that the region’s tourism landscape, which is experiencing processes of diversification, is in reality a complex combination of both Fordist and post-Fordist elements manifest in different ‘shades’ of mass tourism, ‘neo-Fordism’ and ‘mass customization’. The article concludes that the Fordist spectrum of analysis provides a useful perspective from which to examine the changing nature of tourism production and consumption.