From then on, other ports, such as Progreso, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán, gradually began to receive ships. The great hope is the high season, which runs from December to March. “This is a market that has a very loyal public,” explains Darío Flota, director of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council. “People like to travel, they do it once or twice a year. I think the segment is going to take a while to recover, but it’s already moving.”
There are even new companies that have chosen Mexico as the destination for their ships, such as the cruise ship Scarlet Lady, from the Virgin Voyages company, which made its first arrival in Cozumel in October; and the Navigator of the Seas, from Royal Caribbean, which arrived in Cabo San Lucas.
The optimism with which the sector closed 2021 has been slightly overshadowed by the arrival of the omicron variant. Royal Caribbean acknowledged in the last week of December that it was facing a drop in bookings and a rise in cancellations as Covid-19 cases spread in the United States. But even so, the cruise operator said the decline was not as severe as the crisis experienced during the wave caused by the delta variant early last year.
The company said that while travel for the second half of 2022 continues to book within historical ranges, booking factors in the first half of 2022 remain below.
lower capacities
The reactivation covers more and more ports, but the capacity of the ships is still limited by the regulations of the countries, so there are fewer cruise passengers for each ship.
Cozumel, for example, received an average of 3,382 passengers per vessel in the period from January to September 2019, while in the same period of 2021, the figure dropped to 1,740 passengers, 49% less, according to data from the Marine Secretary. At the national level, the average number of cruise passengers per vessel decreased 42%.