For the third consecutive year, Puerto Progreso remains Mexico’s fourth most-visited cruise-ship port.
Combined with the top cruise destinations — Cozumel, Mahahual and Ensenada — the ports welcome 6.4 million maritime passengers a year, according to DataTur.
The cruise industry remains one of the most thriving sectors in tourism. Nearly three in 10 international tourists arrive by cruise ship. DataTur says that Mexico is in sixth place worldwide for cruise tourists, with 8.3 million visitors in 2018.
Progreso recorded the arrival of 443,000 tourists, but on the other side of the Yucatan Peninsula, Cozumel is Mexico’s busiest cruise port with 4.3 million visitors each year. South of that, but still on the Peninsula, is Majahual, which grew to 1.2 million visitors. Third-largest is Ensenada, Baja California, on the northern Pacific coast, with 665,800 visitors in 2018.
Acapulco, Guerrero, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Puerto Angel, Chiapas, La Paz, Baja California, Manzanillo and Colima together took in 2 million seagoing visitors last year.
On land, cruise ship tourists spend the most on excursions to cultural sites.
DataTur estimates the cruise industry creates 80,000 direct jobs in Mexico and 220,000 indirect jobs. For every dollar that enters Mexico through tourism, cruise passengers contribute 20 percent.
Most tourists fly in — all 19.4 million of them — while 18 million drive across the border. 8.3 million account for cruise-ship tourists. For the most part, the ships embark from Florida and California and remain in Mexico for an average of 3.4 days.
Source: La Jornada Maya
