Mahahual Pier: They demand income from cruise ships and investment in the destination

In light of the creation of a trust to manage the five-dollar fee charged to each tourist entering Quintana Roo via cruise ships and the channeling of 70% of that income to improve port infrastructure, the Coparmex representative on the Costa Maya, Gerardo Pérez, considered that the port of Mahahual should benefit from those resources in the same percentage as the collection is made.

He stressed that the resources obtained from the collection of this fee must be fully applied to the improvement of the port tourism infrastructure and not necessarily to allocate 30 percent of these resources to a Fund for the attention of natural disasters, because this concept is already contemplated within the 2025 fiscal package.

“We heard that 70 percent of the funds obtained from the five dollars will be used to address the port infrastructure and 30 percent for a natural disaster fund; that’s where the confusion begins because our hopes that Mahahual will obtain funds for the improvement of the tourist infrastructure if they are channeled to other places vanish,” said Pérez.

As an example, he mentioned the environmental sanitation fee charged by the municipality, which is supposed to improve garbage collection at the port, but so far there is only one garbage truck, which is insufficient, “and to date there is no detailed report on the amount that has actually been collected for this purpose and how it has been used,” denounced the Coparmex representative.

He insisted that Mahahual should receive the same attention for the improvement of its tourism infrastructure in direct relation to the percentage of resources that enter through its cruise ship dock.

As reported by REPORTUR.mxIn May, the federal government was considering authorizing a Hotel, housing and commercial project in Mahahual, which will cover at least 30 hectares and through which it is intended to build numerous buildings and commercial areas. (Mahahual: tourism and commercial project presented to Semarnat).