Mexico to slap cruise passengers with tourist tax starting this week

Cruise passengers docking in Mexico will be forced to cough up a tourist tax starting this week as government officials blast major cruise lines for not paying their fair share into local communities.Industry giant Royal Caribbean, along with other cruise operators, has fought hard against the plan, arguing it drops off passengers who patronize Mexican businesses.Starting Tuesday, cruise passengers will face a $5 fee – which will jump to $21 over the next three years – when their ship stops at a Mexican port.It will be added to the cost of the cruise.That’s been negotiated down from a $42 tariff initially proposed by the Mexican government.The new tax stacks on top of port fees that cruise lines have already paid for years, averaging $28.85 per passenger in Cozumel, according to an analysis from the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association.About 3,300 cruise shops are expected to stop in Mexican ports this year, bringing about 10 million passengers with them, according to the FCCA.Many airlines already fold a Mexican tourist tax into the cost of plane tickets.“The Mexican government’s perspective is: ‘OK, fine, you bring prosperity.

But you need to pay accordingly, like other tourists pay when they come via an airplane,’” Rubén Olmos Rodríguez, who has participated in the tax talks and runs advisory firm Global Nexus, told the Wall Street Journal.Local business owners, however, have raised concerns that the tax could discourage tourists from booking cruises that stop in Mexico.“We, as business owners, were very concerned, because Cozumel lives on cruise tourism,” said Carmen Joaquín, who owns a duty-free shop and serves as president of Cozumel’s business coordinating council. The new tax has heated up tensions between the Mexican government and Royal Caribbean, which is planning to build a massive private resort in Mahahual, a Mexican seaside village.Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.For months, th...