Los Cabos business leaders have a simple message for Mexico City: this is not the year to make visiting the country more expensive. Coparmex Los Cabos, the local chapter of the national employers’ confederation, says it is joining forces with other business chambers to push Congress to freeze the Derecho de No Residente, or DNR — the fee tacked onto airfare for foreign visitors who enter Mexico without a work permit — rather than let it jump nearly 36 percent as currently proposed.
The fee sits inside hotel and tour pricing in ways most travelers never think about, but the proposed increase is concrete. Under the 2027 federal economic package, the DNR would rise from 983 pesos (roughly $53 USD) to 1,334.80 pesos (about $72 USD) per person. For a family of four flying into Los Cabos, that is a total of $288 or so just in federal fees, before anyone books a room or a boat.
Héctor Segovia Tavera, president of Coparmex Los Cabos, did not mince words about the timing. “Right now tourism is going through a rough patch, and they want to charge visitors more to come here — we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said.
Numbers Behind the Pushback
The complaint is not theoretical. Los Cabos logged a 5.6 percent drop in international tourist arrivals during the first half of 2026, according to figures from Fiturca, the local tourism trust. Hotel chains have made similar arguments nationally — the National Hotel Chains Association, representing 33 chains, has asked federal lawmakers to reconsider or phase in the increase gradually, pointing to a combined 1.6 million fewer international passengers at the Cancún, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta airports between January and August compared to the same period in 2025. Los Cabos alone was down 8 percent, and hotel revenue per available room in the destination fell 11.6 percent through July.
None of this is new territory for Los Cabos, which has already urged the federal government to reconsider the DNR hike once this year, and the fee has drawn strong opposition from tourism groups nationwide. The cruise sector has its own version of this fight, after lines warned a separate federal tax increase could squeeze Baja Sur’s ports. Coparmex, however, is not asking to eliminate the fee — just to keep it where it is through 2027. “The goal is not to remove the tax, just to keep it unchanged,” Segovia Tavera said.
Where the Money Actually Goes
Part of what’s fueling the pushback is where the revenue lands. Under the proposed 2027 structure, half of DNR collections would go to military-run tourism infrastructure projects and 26 percent to a facial-recognition program run by Mexico’s immigration agency, both of which federal officials frame as national security matters. That is a shift from the fee’s original design: back in 2018, 80 percent of the DNR went toward international tourism promotion, with a share also flowing to Fonatur, the federal tourism development agency, for destination projects. Today, none of the revenue is earmarked for marketing Mexico abroad — a point tourism groups have raised in the broader debate over where tourist taxes actually go.
Federal Tourism Secretary Josefina Rodríguez has already signaled there is no walking the increase back, telling business leaders at a national tourism council meeting that the security-related allocations leave no flexibility. She did offer some concessions under discussion — a possible phased or progressive payment structure, an exemption for passengers in transit, and relief for Mexican citizens living abroad — along with a pledge to put some of Sectur’s 2027 promotion budget toward a campaign the private sector helps design.
For now, the fee stays at 983 pesos while Congress works through the 2027 economic package in the coming weeks. Anyone booking winter travel to Los Cabos should keep an eye on how that debate lands, since a final vote could set the new rate before the high season kicks into gear. Coparmex and its allied chambers say they intend to keep pressing lawmakers directly rather than wait to see what gets printed in the final budget.
