This story was updated on Monday, Dec. 9 after a meeting that took place between the FCAA and Mexican govt officials.
Mexican lawmakers recently approved a measure that would impose a $42 per person charge on every cruise passenger who docks in the country, a move that the head of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) would confuse travelers and could potentially dampen investment in cruise ports and discourage port calls.
The Mexican Senate voted to lift a longstanding exemption to the nation’s immigration tax for cruise passengers. The exemption was put in place because such visitors often don’t disembark from the ship and, even if they do, stay in Mexico for only a brief length of time.
The exemption is similar to one that applies to travelers transiting through Mexican airports bound for other international destinations.
FCCA Sharply Rebuts New Tax Proposition
In a letter to newly elected Mexican President Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, FCCA CEO Michele Paige said reimposing the tax could negatively affect “the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Mexican citizens, countless small businesses, and communities along Mexico’s coastlines that depend on cruise tourism.”
Paige wrote that the impact would be particularly acute in the state of Quintana Roo, where Cozumel is the most visited cruise port in the world.
“This proposed tax could also jeopardize cruise industry investments in the country—including billions in planned development and other projects—meant to help rebuild Acapulco, cultivate new Mexican tourist destinations, employ more Mexican seafarers and provide social programs to help underserved communities in Mexico,” Paige added. “Cruise lines will inevitably reevaluate the viability of these investments considering the potential loss of consumer demand for Mexico cruises driven by the unprecedented tax increase on cruise tourism.”
Mexico’s National Confederation of Commerce, Service and Tourism Chambers and the Mexican Association of Shipping Agents also condemned the tax, saying it would make other cruise ports more competitive than Mexico’s.
The legislation has already been approved in the Mexican House of Representatives and, if left unchanged, would go into effect in January. Paige said the swift passage of the law, without consultation with the cruise industry, left cruise lines with little time to notify passengers, some of whom have already booked trips to Mexican ports.
The FCCA is calling for urgent dialogue with the Mexican government to rescind or modify the tax plan.
Following a meeting with Mexican government officials on Friday, the FCCA acknowledges the federal government’s decision to delay the implementation of its new Federal Law of Rights tax on cruise passengers from Jan. 1 until July 1, 2025. While the proposed postponement provides a temporary reprieve, FCCA stresses that more comprehensive measures are required to address broader concerns about the tax’s devastating impact on cruise tourism, Mexico’s economy and the livelihoods of its coastal communities.
