Businessmen in the tourism sector ask that the 42 USD tax on visitors arriving via cruise ships to the country begin to be applied until 2026, and for this, they asked for the support of the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of Mexico to manage a possible agreement.
The president of the Yucatán Tourism Business Council, Jorge Carrillo Sáenz, clarified that “the collection of this right is not new, but that visitors who arrived via cruise ships were exempt from that payment, and applying it from the first day of 2025, could cause serious economic effects on both shipping companies and tourism service providers.”
For this reason, in a meeting with the Secretary of Tourism of the Government of Mexico, Josefina Rodríguez Zamora, her intervention was requested to negotiate with the political forces of Congress a possible extension for the application of the collection of that right.
The Secretary of Tourism Development of the State Government, Darío Flota Ocampo, was also present at that meeting, so there is optimism that it could be extended until next year, he added.
In this context, the Florida and Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) announced that the Mexican government decided to postpone for six months the collection of the non-resident fee (DNR) from tourists who arrive in the country on cruise ships, a tax that was going to be collected from foreigners arriving by sea starting January 1st.
“Following a meeting with Mexican government officials on Friday, the FCCA recognizes the government’s decision to postpone the application of its new Federal Cruise Passenger Rights Law tax from January 1 to July 1, 2025. “said the American association.
However, businessmen in the Yucatan tourism sector hope that the measure will begin to be applied by January 2026.
Carrillo Sáenz stressed that in the meeting with the state and federal Tourism authorities, the need was also raised for part of those resources that are going to be collected for the collection of that right, to be invested in the development of new tourist infrastructure in the port of Progreso to make it more attractive for tourists to go to the port and consume goods and services.
Likewise, he considered that it is necessary to give greater impetus to the Magical Towns program in Yucatan, since, although the entity already has seven magical towns, it is necessary to give them more support and promotion so that they receive more national and foreign visitors.
TYT Newsroom
The post Tourism entrepreneurs ask for an extension of the cruise tax for 2026 first appeared on The Yucatan Times.