Mid-Year Stats Show Healthy Jump in Mexico Cruise Arrivals
Key Aspects:
In the first half of 2025, 5.6 million cruise passengers called at Mexican ports.
The arrivals hike translates to an 8.4% spike.
Cozumel alone welcomed 2.4 million cruise guests.
Mexico tourism officials are looking back on the first half of 2025 with glowing pride, thanks to cruise arrival numbers showing a big increase compared to last year.
Just-released data points to a very respectable 5.6 million cruise guests arriving at Mexican ports, reflecting an 8.4% hike.
Cruise ship arrivals between January and June reached 1,639 at all ports, also a hefty 7.8% increase. The lion’s share of ship and guest arrivals goes to Cozumel. In the first half of the year, 2.4 million cruise passengers visited the destination.
“These figures confirm that Mexico is consolidating its position as one of the world’s most attractive destinations for cruise tourism,” said Josefina Rodríguez Zamora, tourism secretary of Mexico.
Other ports scoring big wins in arrivals are Mahahual, better known as Costa Maya, in Quintana Roo; Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas, both in Baja California Sur; and Puerto Vallarta, in Jalisco.
Ensenada is often packaged with visits to Catalina Island on sailings from Los Angeles and San Diego, while Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta are standard calls on virtually every Mexican Riviera voyage.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Cozumel is a mainstay port along with Costa Maya and Progreso on Western Caribbean cruises operated by ships based in Galveston, Texas; New Orleans; and the three main Florida ports — Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral.
Zamora cited the government’s strengthening of the National Port System as largely responsible for the growth. Cozumel is the busiest in terms of arrivals and has three cruise ship piers. The possible construction of a fourth has been in the conceptual stage for the last few years.
Costa Maya is the second-busiest, welcoming 1.2 million cruise guests during the first six months of 2025. Cabo San Lucas received about 480,000.
If the demand holds through the remainder of 2025, Cozumel would be on track to welcome roughly 4.8 million cruisers. That would put it well ahead of pre-pandemic records; in 2018, for instance, 4.3 million cruise passengers arrived in Cozumel.
Arrivals Spike Comes as New Cruise Tax Takes Effect
The healthy arrivals numbers were announced just as a new cruise arrival tax went into effect at Mexican ports.
Taking effect on July 1, 2025, the $5 per person tax had been delayed from its original implementation date of January 1, 2025. In 2026, it will rise to $10 per passenger, and in 2027 to $21 per cruise arrival. The tax was originally proposed at $42 per person before being pared down.
The levy is meant to expand the country’s non-resident tourist tax, which had never been charged to cruise passengers.
Several mega-ships currently offer itineraries calling at Cozumel and Costa Maya. Among them are the 5,300-guest Carnival Jubilee, the 3,600-guest Carnival Dream, and 3,700-guest Carnival Breeze, and Royal Caribbean’s 3,100-guest Mariner of the Seas and 5,400-guest Harmony of the Seas, all based at Galveston.
Cruise ships currently visiting Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada, on Mexican Riviera sailings, include the 4,100-guest Carnival Firenze and 4,000-guest Carnival Panorama, and Royal Caribbean’s 4,100-guest Ovation of the Seas and 3,300-guest Navigator of the Seas, all homeported at Los Angeles.
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These ports are also typically included on Hawaii voyages. For instance, Holland America Line’s Zaandam will visit both destinations on her 29-night Circle Hawaii & Historical Baja Peninsula cruise sailing roundtrip from San Diego on November 19, 2025.
The Mexican government has plans to improve additional ports in the coming years. It plans to invest 55 billion pesos ($2.9 billion USD) to boost infrastructure in Ensenada, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Acapulco, Veracruz, and Progreso, according to local media reports.