The new $10 tax on foreign tourists that will be imposed shortly by the Government of Quintana Roo will harm destinations such as Cancun compared to their competitors, the tourist businessmen denounce. In fact, they emphasize that rivals such as the Dominican Republic or Cuba have opted to give tourists incentives instead of punishing them, so it is clear that these destinations are the ones that will benefit the most from the rates imposed in the Mexican Caribbean.
“There are destinations like the Dominican Republic that give away insurance and Covid tests to those who go, then we would have to do the same, not increase the tax burden,” the president of AMAV, Sergio González Rubiera, reproached in a press conference
For his part, the representative of the hoteliers of Cancun, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, Roberto Cintrón, has revealed, in a meeting with deputies of the XVI Legislature of Quintana Roo, that they have already received letters from wholesalers and tour operators in Canada, Europe, and Latin America, warning that it is not appropriate to try to increase the tax burden on foreign tourists.
Tourism entrepreneurs have given the example of Cuba, which charges $ 20 to enter and leave the country but does not charge DNR or Tax on Lodging or Environmental Sanitation. In addition, they have pointed out that the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, will support the commercial unblocking of Cuba, which would emerge as a powerful competitor for the Mexican Caribbean
Currently, the international tourist who arrives in the Mexican Caribbean has to pay an average of 2,193 Mexican pesos, in five types of Rights: Non-Resident (DNR), for 558 pesos; that of Migratory Services, for 149 pesos; the Airport Use Fee (TUA), of 461.25 pesos; the Lodging Tax (IH) for 660 pesos; and the municipal Environmental Sanitation, for 364.84 pesos per night of stay.
The state government has warned that despite the opposition of businessmen to the new tourist tax, there would be no going back in the new charges that the administration of Carlos Joaquín González intends to establish since they are planned in the face of cuts to the entity in 2021 from Amlo government
At the end of 2020, Mexico will have a drop of 20 million tourists derived from the health crisis, has revealed the Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco, within the framework of the inauguration of the Tianguis de Pueblos Mágicos.
The official explained that the fall in Mexico has been less than 50 percent, while in Spain it has reached 70 percent without counting the month of December. “The impact of the pandemic has been of that size at the international level,” he stressed.
Source: reportur.com