The National Chamber of Commerce has announced its support for the entry of cruise ships to Puerto Morelos, explaining that this type of traveler is not the same as those who contract all-inclusive travel plans.
Rafael Ortega, president of La Cámara Nacional de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo de Cancún said that hotel entrepreneurs have become rebellious with everything that implies a change in Quintana Roo, such as the entrance of digital accommodation platforms and the entrance of cruise ships to Playa del Carmen and now to Puerto Morelos.
He says that tourists who arrive via all-inclusive plans are different from the tourists who arrive via cruise ships. “Tourism that arrive to the hotels is captive because they rarely occupy taxis, eat at restaurants or go shopping,” he explained.
Ortega says this is the reason they support the arriving cruise ships to Puerto Morelos, because it means economic benefits for the commercial area of the municipality. He says that the ships arriving will carry approximately 200 passengers for each arrival, allowing them to shop and eat at restaurants in the port, providing economic benefits to the more than 143 registered businesses.
He explained that this could be the trigger for the creation of a home port, which would help the local merchants. “What cannot continue to be allowed is that the economic benefits be only in a few hands, the doors of the hotels must be opened to the European plan.”
Beginning November, Puerto Morelos will become a first port-of-call for small cruise lines such as Le Ponant and Vidanta that will make day stops as they travel along Mexico’s coast of the Mayan Route.