With this new tax each passenger must pay 5 dollars or 56 pesos
Jorge Lecona, director for Mexico and Latin America port operator Hutchinson Port Holdings (HPH), said that the new cruise line tax, which was
established in December 2007, and which requires each passenger to pay 5 dollars or 56 pesos at the port of Ensenada has had a very strong impact.
"It's very bad, and is discouraging the arrival of passengers, indeed in Ensenada in October 50% of our market stopped coming.
This is because one of the two cruise lines (Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean) decided to not come to that port. The director preferred not
to identify the company, as they are in negotiations to have them return.
Lecona elaborated that the port received approximately 250,000 passengers per year but estimated that with this development will achieve only 125,000.
"There are countries that offer money to get cruise lines, as the Caribbean islands. (...) The cruise lines were very insistent that this be reviewed,
there were a lot of requests to reconsider the issue, but the tax was initiated. That creates a very big problem for us because the end result is we
lose 50% of the market."
According to the latest reform to the Federal Law of Rights (in December 2007), 80% of what is collected goes to the municipality and the remaining
20% is for the National Immigration Institute. |
