$42 Cruise Passenger Tax Mexican Congress approves The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) said in a letter to Mexico’s president that last week’s hurricane could reduce demand for Mexican itineraries and harm the country’s tourism economy.
FCCA CEO Michele Paige wrote in a letter to President Claudia Sheinbaum signed by cruise line executives that the tax would make cruises in Mexico Tourism is 213% more expensive than the average Caribbean port price, effectively “squeezing Mexico out of the cruise market.”
Michelle Page
Signatories include Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bailey, Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Harry Sommer and MSC Cruises North America Chairman Richard Sa So.
The tax would eliminate the travel tax exemption that cruise lines have had for more than a decade. The FCCA said Mexican cruise ports collected $62.6 million in port fees for the 2023-24 cruise year and that the $42 head tax “is a cost that most cruise guests cannot easily bear.”
Page warned that the tax would make trips to Mexico more expensive, reducing the need for ports to call there. By 2025, Mexican cruise ports are expected to attract more than 10 million passengers and approximately 3,300 cruise ship calls, FCCA said.
Page said the tax would be “particularly damaging” to the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, home to the ports of Cozumel and Costa Maya. According to the FCCA, the cruise tourism industry accounts for 40% of Quintana Roo’s GDP.
Overall, cruise tourism contributes approximately $1 billion in direct spending to the Mexican economy, supporting more than 20,000 jobs and more than $200 million in wages annually, the FCCA said.
“This proposed tax could also jeopardize the country’s cruise industry investments, including billions of dollars in planned developments and other projects that are designed to help rebuild Acapulco, cultivate new Mexican tourism destinations, hire more Mexican seafarers and provide social programs to help underserved communities in Mexico,” Page said. “Considering that unprecedented tax increases in the cruise industry may result in reduced consumer demand for Mexican cruises, cruise lines will inevitably re-evaluate the viability of these investments.”
Page expressed frustration at the lack of consultation with cruise lines, saying “Mexico has a long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship with the cruise industry.”
“We were completely blindsided by last week’s unilateral decision to rescind the long-standing exemption and the efforts to quickly move forward with this policy change without any dialogue with industry,” Page said. “We are also concerned that this new policy was implemented at the last minute Notification and implementation are expected to take effect in approximately one month, which leaves us and our partners with little time to prepare and creates confusion and uncertainty for our guests as most of our 2025 cruises are already scheduled. Sold.”
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