In Mahahual, south of Quintana Roo, Mexico, Royal Caribbean had purchased the port to turn it into a water park. The environmentalists’ protests were useless: a federal court rejected the appeal presented by the association Defending the Derecho in a Healthy Environment (DMAS) and just approved the deforestation of the area, effectively giving the shipping company a pass.
The small Mexican town, overlooking the Caribbean Sea and inhabited by just 4 thousand people, thus risks becoming yet another tropical paradise sacrificed to mass cruise tourism. At the center of the controversy, the investment announced by the US company of over 600 million dollars to create the “Perfect Day Mexico”, a gigantic exclusive water park intended for passengers on its cruise ships.
The project, presented in October 2024, would cover approximately 90 hectares along the southern coast of the state of Quintana Roo and would replicate the model already developed by the company in the Bahamas with “Perfect Day at CocoCay”: water slides, infinite pools, VIP areas, international restaurants and spaces reserved exclusively for cruise passengers.
But while the company talked about economic development and thousands of jobs, environmentalists and local residents denounced what they called potential ecocide. The protests have intensified especially after the company’s purchase of 34 pieces of land along the coast, without it having so far been publicly clarified what their precise use will be.
Meanwhile, drinking water and electricity, the inhabitants explain, are scarce goods in this area far from large urban centres. A mega resort designed for millions of tourists would therefore risk taking away essential resources from the local population.
Real estate speculation
What is also worrying environmentalists and associations is what has been happening around Mahahual in recent months. According to various reports, groups of illegal squatters have taken possession of peripheral land, clearing hectares of mangroves to fuel real estate speculation.
The objective would be to resell that land at prices up to ten times higher than the current value, betting on the arrival of thousands of workers and new residents attracted by the tourism project.
Mangroves, however, are not simple coastal trees: they represent fundamental ecosystems for marine biodiversity and a natural barrier against erosion, hurricanes and rising sea levels. Their destruction could have very serious consequences on the environmental balance of the Mexican Caribbean coast.
The petition and appeal rejected
The story also went viral thanks to a petition launched on Change.org against the project “Perfect Day MexicoThe activists asked the Mexican authorities to stop what they consider to be yet another case of extractive tourism. But everything is blocked again: the court rejects the appeal and revokes the stoppage of work.
The green light came from the First Collegiate Court of the Quintana Roo Circuit, which rejected the appeal presented by the environmental association Defending the Derecho in a Healthy Environment (DMAS).
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According to the judges, the appeal was presented outside the time required by the procedure. With this decision, the definitive suspension that blocked the project is therefore cancelled.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed: this means that Royal Caribbean will be able to continue the authorization process and request the missing permits, including federal ones from the Mexican Ministry of the Environment (Semarnat). Semarnat will in fact have to officially evaluate the environmental impact of the planned works, including compatibility with the area considered to be highly ecologically fragile.
How much do we bet that even one of the last relatively uncontaminated stretches of the Mexican Caribbean will be sacrificed to mass tourism?
