In the first four months of 2024, Mexico welcomed 3.88 million cruise ship tourists, up 2.2% compared to the same period of last year, the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) reported Sunday.
Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marqués said in a statement that the passengers arrived aboard 1,200 cruise ships and spent a total of US $325.8 million tourist dollars in Mexico — 6.2% more compared to the same period of 2023.
Torruco added that the average cruise ship tourist expenditure in Mexico was US $83.9 per person, 3.9% more than in 2023, or $80.7 dollars per person.
Mexico’s ports with the highest number of cruise ship tourists included:
- Cozumel and Mahahual in Quintana Roo
- Ensenada in Baja California
- Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur
- Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco.
Altogether, these four ports hosted 90% of the total number of cruise ship tourists that arrived at Mexico’s ports from January to April.
Cozumel, which had 520 cruise ship arrivals and welcomed 1.81 million passengers, saw a 14.2% increase in visitors and a 5.5% rise in the number of ships compared to the same period of 2023.
Meanwhile, Mahahual saw 207 cruise ship arrivals and 844,087 tourists, reflecting a 15.6% increase in the number of ships and a 35.6% rise in passengers. With these statistics, Quintana Roo continues to lead the way in cruise ship tourism to Mexico.
Ensenada welcomed 281,007 passengers onboard 93 cruise ships, while Cabo San Lucas saw 83 ships and 257,069 passengers.
Finally, Puerto Vallarta docked 78 cruise ships and 238,471 passengers.
One of the cruises that arrived in Mahahual, Quintana Roo, was the Icon of the Seas, recently named the world’s biggest cruise ship. The ship, operated by Royal Caribbean Group, reached Mahahual in February carrying 8,000 passengers — double the population of the port village.
Home to the world’s second largest coral reef, Mahahual is a small fishing town that comes alive during the winter cruise ship season. It has grown in popularity recently as it is the only cruise port in southern Quintana Roo.
Mexico News Daily
83.9 USD per person, not bad. Would be interesting to know if these ships also pay port fees, and if they buy additional food for the continuation of the cruise, which would be an additional benefit (unless this is already included in the 83.9). On the other hand these ships may unload waste and have other negative environmental effects, which come at a cost to mitigate.