Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, August 24, 2026 – Fonatur has begun technical work on a 542.32-hectare tourism center in Compostela, creating a federally backed development front north of Banderas Bay while Puerto Vallarta is absorbing weaker international air traffic, softer hotel demand and a more selective property market.
The Centro Turístico Sustentable Compostela will cover land tied to Boca de Chila and Chacala-Las Cuevas. Its initial phase carries an estimated MXN 7.13 billion in public and private investment, including MXN 1.734 billion committed directly by Fonatur.
The agency awarded an MXN 11.2 million conceptual master plan in April and an MXN 8.1 million contract covering topographic, geodetic and mapping work. That second contract began June 15 and runs through December 30.
This would be Fonatur’s first new planned destination since the agency launched CIP Nayarit in 2006. That earlier program included Litibú in Bahía de Banderas and Costa Capomo in Compostela, both part of the coastal expansion that gradually moved resort and residential investment north of Puerto Vallarta.
The new name signals a change in federal branding. Fonatur is calling the project a sustainable tourism center rather than another integrated planned center such as Cancún or Los Cabos. The practical objective remains substantial. Its planning file describes a new destination designed to attract domestic and international travelers, improve infrastructure and draw private capital.
Riviera Nayarit’s current visitor mix is listed at 61 percent domestic and 39 percent international. The same file projects that international travelers could reach 65 percent by 2053. That target places the market long associated with Puerto Vallarta at the center of Nayarit’s expansion strategy. Fonatur’s 2026–2030 institutional program also identifies tourism diversification and strategic investment as federal priorities.
Nayarit is building its own gateway
The Compostela project is entering a state that already has a large development pipeline. Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat said in January that Nayarit had 17 tourism projects valued at US$5.63 billion. The state tourism portal lists more than 27,000 hotel rooms, including 11,301 rooms in five-star, grand tourism and special-category properties.
Air access is also changing the competitive map. The expanded Tepic–Riviera Nayarit airport is designed to handle as many as four million passengers annually. Its current schedule includes Los Angeles and Houston, plus seasonal links to Vancouver and Calgary. A ground transport system is being promoted between the airport and coastal destinations.
Those links reduce Nayarit’s dependence on Puerto Vallarta International Airport. They also give hotel companies and tour operators a second international arrival point tied directly to Nayarit’s tourism brand.
That shift lands during a difficult year in Puerto Vallarta. GAP’s July passenger report recorded 484,200 passengers at PVR, down 12.1 percent from July 2025. International traffic fell 29.8 percent that month and 19.3 percent across the first seven months of 2026. PVDN’s July airport coverage showed domestic traffic holding nearly flat while the international segment made up most of the decline.
Puerto Vallarta hotels ended July near 68 percent occupancy, slightly below the same month last year. The Fonatur project remains in its technical stage and will not affect current room supply, but the investment contest begins earlier as hotel brands, lenders and developers choose the next coastal projects.
Puerto Vallarta’s pricing power faces a test
Fonatur’s plan is not arriving alone. A separate private development called Costa Nayarit was presented in Compostela in April with more than MXN 20 billion in projected investment. The tourism and residential complex includes more than 4,500 tourist homes, hotels, a marina, interior canals and golf.
That scale creates a direct comparison with Puerto Vallarta’s condominium and second-home market. Public market data reviewed by PVDN showed fewer closings, longer waits and stronger buyer negotiation in May. Prices had not collapsed, but buyers were already becoming more selective.
The federal housing price index adds another layer. During the first half of 2026, home values tied to mortgage transactions rose 11.2 percent across Jalisco and 10.6 percent across Nayarit. Bahía de Banderas recorded a 10.7 percent increase. The SHF figures do not track every cash purchase, luxury residence or preconstruction contract, but they show that housing costs on both sides of the state line were still rising at double-digit rates.
The regional cost picture can move in two directions. More coastal inventory can restrain asking prices in Vallarta’s tourism-condo market by spreading buyers across additional projects. Large investment flows can also raise land values and housing demand along the new development corridor. Puerto Vallarta’s immediate exposure lies in the premium attached to its established name, airport access and urban amenities. Each new high-end option in Nayarit gives travelers and property buyers another place to spend.
Puerto Vallarta still handled 3.8 million airport passengers through July and retains a mature urban tourism economy that a planned resort corridor cannot quickly reproduce. Nayarit does not need to replace the city to change its market. Capturing part of the next cycle of international bookings, hotel capital and second-home purchases would be enough to put pressure on Vallarta businesses and sellers.
Fonatur expects to present the Compostela plan in the coming weeks, while the mapping and engineering contract runs through December. Those steps will turn the project into a clearer proposition that hotel groups and developers can price. Puerto Vallarta’s competitive position will increasingly depend on air access, hotel value, infrastructure reliability, development quality and housing that remains within reach of the workforce sustaining its tourism economy.
