Cancun Tourist Fee Will More Than Double For 2023

CANCÚN | For those traveling to Cancun next year, know that some tourist fees are set to more than double for 2023. This is on top of the Visitor Tax, which has been in place since 2021. The fee in question is the Environmental Fee that’s added to the hotel cost.

It was reported in local news earlier this week that the city’s fees for Cancun’s official Environmental Sanitation Law will increase by at least 133% come the new year.

All About Cancun’s Environmental Fee At Hotels
As it currently stands, the Environmental Fee is added on to your bill when staying at Cancun hotels, and the money is then given by the hotel to the City Council.

The fee is calculated per night per stay, for a total of approximately $1.40 USD or 28 Mexican pesos for each night. With the fee increase coming next year, the fee will be about 67 Mexican pesos per night.

Extra fees such as this one are supplementary to the usual VAT and city tax that you will see added to the accommodation costs, which is becoming more common at hotels across the globe.

In the Cancun context, the law was built to allocate funds to keep up with beach maintenance, security, as well as infrastructure.

The municipal president of Benito Juárez, Ana Patricia Peralta de la Peña, made it a point to mention during the announcement that this fee increase has been agreed upon between local hotels and the tourism sector.

“This was worked together with the hotel associations, with Acluvaq (Association of Vacation Clubs of Quintana Roo), to have higher income for our city,” she stated.

More Fees Come With More Transparency, Say Officials

Officials also assured that this fee increase will come with more transparency. It was stated that a new committee of five municipal government employees will be built to help manage the funds, which will include five Cancun municipal government employees, four officials from the hotel/tourism sector, as well as one from the chamber. 

“In other words, there will be five members from organized civil society and five members from the Benito Juárez city council. With this, we are going to have these resources with greater transparency because the technical committee, which will be made up of part of the former cited, will be part of the trust, and then, each of the resources exercised by it will be allocated to three items.”

Tourist Fees To Go Towards Cancun Beach Maintenance

They also reiterated during the announcement that the increased Environmental Fee for tourists at Cancun hotels will be used for a number of practical matters, such as the cleaning up and improvement of the beaches. It will also go towards issues of local infrastructure, traffic lights, and security.

With the ongoing issue of sargassum on the beaches of Cancun and throughout parts of the Riviera Maya, it looks like an increase in funds for beach maintenance will be essential for beach upkeep for tourists.

Environmental Fee – Information For Travelers

The Environmental Fee, also known as the Environmental Sanitation Tax, was first put in place on February 2, 2022. The fee when then automatically added to any Cancun hotel reservations following that date.

According to the mention on this Cancun resort website, “The Collection of Environmental Sanitation is a charge dedicated to the betterment of the local community operated by the government of Quintana Roo. This fee supports government investment in environmental infrastructure, sustainability and safety practices, among others.”