Cruise ship tourism and private and public investment were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Friday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s July 4 mañanera.
Sheinbaum decries scant onshore spending by cruise ship passengers
Asked about the on-again, off-again project to build a fourth cruise ship dock in Cozumel, Sheinbaum took the opportunity to speak more broadly about cruise ship tourism in Mexico.
“Cruise ship tourism is important for the country … but part of what we want is” for passengers to “buy things in Mexico” while they are in the country, she said.
Sheinbaum said that Mexico is seeking a much greater economic benefit from the docking of cruise ships at the nation’s ports.
The president said that cruise ships, and their passengers, “normally bring practically everything” with them and consequently spend little while onshore in Mexico.
“There is little economic spillover in our country,” she said.
“They get off for a few hours and they get on [the ship] again and leave, in some cases,” Sheinbaum said.
Former tourism minister Miguel Torruco said last year that the average cruise ship tourist expenditure in Mexico was US $83.90 per person.
Sheinbaum said that authorities would like cruise ship passengers to spend more time in Mexico and to purchase more Mexican products, such as arts and crafts. She said that her tourism and culture ministers are working on a project with the National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts (Fonart) to make authentic artesanías more accessible to cruise ship passengers.
Her remarks came just three days after Mexico began imposing a US $5 tax on cruise ship tourists, finally implementing a compromise between the government and the cruise ship companies that had lobbied fiercely against the originally proposed $42 levy.
Sheinbaum: Economic impact of Cozumel dock project has to be reviewed
Sheinbaum said that she had spoken to Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama about the proposal to build a fourth cruise ship dock in Cozumel, a Caribbean island off the coast of Playa del Carmen.
She said they agreed that the project needs to be reviewed (once again) to determine the “environmental impacts it might have.”
Mexico News Daily reported last month that “advocates for Cozumel’s coral reefs were stunned in April when the federal Environment Ministry greenlit the project to expand a cruise ship port that would allegedly damage the Villa Blanca Reef.”
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum appeared to indicate that she was not in favor of the fourth dock project, at least in its currently proposed location.
“The appeal of Cozumel has a lot to do with the reefs,” she said, adding that conserving them was a matter of “principle.”
“… They’re going to end up destroying the tourism appeal of Cozumel if [the proposed dock] goes over a reef,” Sheinbaum said.
“So it was agreed to review it again and also to speak to the community,” she said.
‘The economy is doing well, the peso is strong,’ Sheinbaum says after meeting with business leaders
A reporter asked the president about her meeting on Thursday with business leaders including Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest person.
The leader of Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council, Francisco Cervantes, was among the other business representatives that attended the meeting with Sheinbaum and other officials, including Altagracia Gómez, head of the government’s Business Advisory Council.
Sheinbaum said that the meeting was “very good” and noted that the business people raised their “different concerns,” including ones about delays in the issuance of permits for projects.
“And what we proposed to them is to invest,” said the president, who said that her government would work “within the framework of the law” to expedite the issuance of permits.
Recibimos en Palacio Nacional a empresarias y empresarios; están optimistas por la situación económica de México y comprometidos con nuestro país. pic.twitter.com/PYm6U3emBS
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) July 4, 2025
Slim, via his various companies, is one of the biggest investors and employers in Mexico. In a report last month, Bloomberg described him as Mexico’s “most important oil baron” given his interests in the sector, including as a partner to state oil company Pemex.
Sheinbaum noted that the business people she met with on Thursday, including the CEOs of breadmaker Bimbo and supermarket chain Chedraui, already have investments in many sectors of the economy.
“But there are other areas … where it’s important that they generate value chains with small and medium-sized businesses,” she said.
“The well-being hubs are coming … so what we proposed to them is to invest in the country,” Sheinbaum said.
Her meeting with the business people came a week after she signed agreements with 14 governors to establish the first 15 Economic Development Hubs for Well-being, a key facet of the government’s flagship Plan México industrial policy. The meeting took place the same day that four Mexican pharmaceutical companies announced major investment projects at the president’s morning press conference.
Sheinbaum acknowledged that the United States’ tariffs on Mexican goods, including steel, aluminum and vehicles, “have an impact on our economy.”
Nevertheless, she declared that “the economy is doing well” and “the peso is strong.”
“In macroeconomic terms, we’re doing well,” she added.
In addition to private investment, Sheinbaum stressed that public investment is also “important.”
“We have that,” she said.
“Public investment this year, counting everything, is around 800 billion pesos [US $42.9 billion],” Sheinbaum said, adding that the outlay on government welfare programs in 2025 will also be about 800 billion pesos.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
