Step aside, London, Paris and Rome: Travelers like Cancun, Mexico

Where do U.S. overseas travelers want to go this summer? Cancun, Mexico, ranked No. 1, beating out London, Paris, Rome and Dublin, Ireland, in the top five international destinations for 2014, according to Fly.com data released Wednesday.

Lower airfares to Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America may be wooing U.S. vacationers who don’t want to spend 6% more than last year for flights to Europe this summer, the online airfare comparison company says.

Four other Mexican cities — San Jose del Cabo (No. 7), Puerto Vallarta (No. 10), Guadalajara (No. 33) and Mexico City (No. 35) — showed up on the company’s Top 50 International Summer Destinations for 2014. Round-trip airfares to these cities dropped 8% on average compared with last year’s prices, Fly.com says.

Caribbean destinations made up about a quarter of the list, with Montego Bay, Jamaica (No. 6); Oranjestad, Aruba (No. 8); and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (No. 9) in the top 10.

“Purchase price and the appeal of shorter flights are making travelers think twice about Europe,” Warren Chang, company vice president and general manager, said in a statement about the data.

“Moving forward, we expect this trend to continue, especially in light of recent service expansions into Mexico and the Caribbean from carriers such as Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines.”

Fly.com compiled this list from 5 million searches for destinations on travel dates between June 1 and Aug. 31. The list isn’t based on reservations made (Fly.com is not a booking site) but on what destinations its users were looking at from Jan. 1 to March 19.