Every cruise ship passenger entering Mexican waters soon may be charged a $42 tax, whether they disembark or not.
Mexico has long taxed hotel guests but exempted cruise passengers, who sleep on their ship. But a bill working its way through the Mexican Congress now would target cruise ships beginning in 2026.
Designed to address Mexico’s enormous debt, the tax would affect more than 10 million passengers on 3,300 ships arriving in the ports of Cozumel—one of the world’s busiest ports, with 4 million visitors—as well as Costa Maya and Cabo San Lucas.
The cruise industry, of course, is opposed to the new tax. Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association president Michelle Paige said in a statement that they “were completely caught off guard with last week’s unilateral decision to eliminate the long-standing in-transit exemption and efforts to fast-track this policy change without any dialogue with the industry. This gives us and our partners virtually no time to prepare and creates confusion and uncertainty for our guests because the majority of our cruises have already been sold for 2025.”
A public letter from the Florida and Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), which represents 23 major cruise lines, said it would make Mexico more than double the price of the average Caribbean port and “could also jeopardize the cruise industry’s investments in the country, including billions in planned developments and other projects.” The Mexican Association of Shipping Agents said in a statement that “if this measure is implemented, it would make Mexican ports of call among the most expensive in the world, severely affecting their competitiveness with other Caribbean destinations”—a serious threat given Royal Caribbean’s plan to open a private beach club in Cozumel in 2026 and Perfect Day Mexico in 2027.
