The Hotel Association of Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, announced that visitors must now pay a tourist tax when visiting anywhere in the state of Baja California Sur including Los Cabos.
The collection for the new tax for foreign tourists who arrive in Baja California Sur has officially begun. This was informed by the president of the Hotel Association of Los Cabos, Lilzi Orci Fregoso. The Hotel Association in Los Cabos has already implemented digital-friendly and graphic mechanisms to promote the payment of this tax that will be destined to a tourism trust.
The president of this Association commented that the expectation is good. They trust that the digital technologies applied will support the collection of approximately $400 Mexican pesos per tourist (About $20 USD). “Foreign visitors are being informed that it’s already in force and how they can make the payment. In large groups, it can be paid when making the reservation, at the time of confirmation and through the company that organizes the convention, who’ll eventually issue the payment”.
“Right now, there are different mechanisms that we think will have a good impact to start collecting the tax, and in time this will become a standard payment. It will be part of the travel routine to Los Cabos,” said Orci Fregoso. She stressed that the Ministry of Finance and Administration of Baja California Sur has released all children under 12 years of age from the tax payment to make this a friendlier way to raise the money proposed by the hoteliers of Los Cabos.
“There is good news, the Ministry of Finance and Administration announced that children under 12 years of age are exempt from payment. All this information will be provided when booking the trip. There will be several communication mechanisms, according to the resources of each hotel and the rules of each corporate group. Some will be informed via email when the reservation is confirmed and provided with instructions, even sending them directly to the webpage with a QR code. Others will be charged at the time of check-in. The idea is to use the digital screens at each resort to communicate this information. Each hotel will use different strategies,” concluded Lilzi Orcí.
“They’re working hard on finding the right mechanisms to charge visitors arriving to Baja California Sur and make their payment without any issues,” added the Finance Minister. Initially, it was set to begin in January 2022, and these resources would amount to 200 million pesos (10 million USD) in the first year of its application. However, it was postponed for a few months since the operational reviews were being done for its implementation.
“We have been working on reactivating the collection of this tax, and we are doing the technical reviews, especially operational. Originally it was planned to start in January, but it is until this month of March when the collection begins. We’ve been talking to entrepreneurs, and we think we can now start the process.” all this was reported by Bertha Montaño, in addition to clarifying that they’re still working on more diversified mechanisms to pay this contribution.
During the previous administration, headed by former governor Carlos Mendoza Davis, it was not possible to carry out the collection of the Tourist Tax since the COVID-19 pandemic arose and most tourists stopped traveling. However, according to the Finance Minister, there was an annual projection of 600 million pesos (30 million USD).
“We’re estimating for 2022, approximately 200 million pesos against the 600 million that was initially foreseen annually by the previous administration. Mostly because it’s the first year of implementation, and we want to be conservative,” he added, considering that there will be a higher goal for the following year.
Said Foreign Tourist Tax was created and approved during the administration of Carlos Mendoza Davis, who supported it and was set to start in force in 2019, which consists of charging the tax to anyone who arrives in Baja California Sur and is traveling from a foreign country.