Acapulco wants international travellers back, and it's borrowing a page from Mexico's most successful tourist machine. The Pacific resort city is striking up a partnership with Quintana Roo — home to Cancún, the Riviera Maya and Playa del Carmen — to channel some of the Mexican Caribbean's enormous foreign visitor flow towards the Guerrero coast.

The linchpin is a new direct flight between Cancún and Acapulco, operated by Viva Aerobus and starting November 3. It's the first time the country's two flagship beach regions will be linked by a nonstop service, and Acapulco officials are betting visitors who fly in for the Caribbean coast will be tempted to add a few days on the Pacific side of the country.

Mayor Abelina López Rodríguez is behind the initiative, which involves formal collaboration agreements between the two destinations. As a first step, Acapulco's tourism minister Noé Peralta Herrera is heading to Cancún and Playa del Carmen for a round of meetings with travel agencies, tour operators and industry reps — the people who actually package and sell Mexican holidays to foreigners. "We must form alliances and work together with travel agencies, tour operators, and our business partners to recover the foreign market," Peralta said.

There's other good news for the port city. The Eurodam, a Holland America Line cruise ship, docked in Acapulco for the first time in 17 years. And from December 1, Volaris will fly direct from Puebla to Acapulco — a 55-minute hop departing at 11:55 a.m., with fares from 457 pesos (about US $25). That's a handy option for travellers who'd rather skip the long drive.

Acapulco also wants its long-haul connections restored. Officials are pushing to resume flights to Canadian cities plus Los Angeles and Chicago — the latter home to more than 500,000 people with roots in Guerrero, a ready-made market for family visits and heritage trips.

Not everything has gone to plan. A scheduled October 11 call by the Norwegian Joy, which would have brought 3,555 passengers and 1,623 crew, was scrapped because of rough seas from Hurricane Simon.

Why it matters: Acapulco was once Mexico's glamour resort, and it's been working hard to rebuild its international reputation after years dominated by domestic tourism. The Cancún connection makes a two-coast Mexican holiday genuinely easy to book — fly into the Caribbean, out of the Pacific, or hop between them. If you've only ever pictured Acapulco through old Hollywood films, the new routes and returning cruise ships make it a reasonable time to see what's there now.

Report via Mexico News Daily Travel.