Visitax Collection Will Continue at Cancún Airport, Governor Mara Lezama Says

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Visitax tourist tax will continue to be collected at Cancún International Airport because there is no other way to gather it, Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama said, dismissing suggestions that the presence of collection agents at the terminal is a new controversy.

Speaking during a public hearing in the Villas Otoch Paraíso neighborhood of Cancún, Lezama was asked about a recent video in which a traveler confronted officials from the state tax administration (SATQ) at the airport’s payment module.

The governor said the charge has been levied at the airport for years and that her administration is working to collect it in an orderly fashion, in coordination with airport authorities and airlines.

“It has to be there, because there is no other way. We have discussed it,” Lezama said when asked whether the collection point could be moved out of the airport.

Last year the state government proposed that hotels withhold the Visitax in the same way they handle the lodging tax, but the tourism sector rejected the idea and the initiative did not move forward.

Lezama stressed that what matters most is that visitors keep arriving happy in the Mexican Caribbean, pointing to full flights as evidence of strong demand.

She also said her government remains in talks with Mexico’s National Customs Agency to review the criteria used to charge travelers who bring photographic equipment into the country, a recurring source of complaints from visitors.

“We look at everything related to the experience at the destination, from the moment they arrive until they leave,” she added.