<\/p>\n
By Daina Beth Solomon and Natalia Siniawski<\/p>\n
MEXICO CITY, May 19 (Reuters) – Mexican authorities rejected a large water park planned by cruise company Royal Caribbean on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, Environment Minister \u200cAlicia Barcena said on Tuesday, following backlash from residents and environmental groups over the development’s ecological \u200cimpact.<\/p>\n
The rejection of the mega-tourism project underscores growing resistance to mass development in Mexico’s pristine coastal regions.<\/p>\n
“It is not going to be \u200bapproved,” Barcena told a press conference, noting that the company was also taking steps to withdraw the project.<\/p>\n
Royal Caribbean told Reuters it regretted the decision but respected Mexico’s environmental authorities.<\/p>\n
The company added it remains optimistic about investing in Mexico and plans to talk with stakeholders in the coming weeks about local job creation and environmental infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Slated to \u200cdebut in fall 2027 in Mahahual, \u2060a beach town near a coral reef, the project dubbed Perfect Day Mexico was advertised as the “biggest, baddest, boldest destination,” offering beach clubs, pools, bars and more than \u206030 waterslides.<\/p>\n
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum echoed the environmental concerns during her daily morning press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n
“We must not do anything that affects that area, which has a very important ecological balance, and is particularly important for the reefs,” \u200bSheinbaum \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n
Royal Caribbean, which offers a number of cruise options in \u200bMexico and the Caribbean, saw Perfect Day \u200cMexico as part of its strategy to expand investments in land-based destinations.<\/p>\n
ENVIRONMENTAL PUSHBACK<\/p>\n
Mahahual, home to fewer than 3,000 people, is known for its clear, warm waters and its proximity to the Mesoamerican Reef, the largest reef in the Western Hemisphere, which attracts scuba divers to see its array of fish, coral and other marine life.<\/p>\n
Turtles form nests along the coast, which gives way to dense mangrove forests and tropical jungle that are home \u200cto jaguars.<\/p>\n
Environmental group Greenpeace warned that the region was at \u200ba “crucial juncture,” noting that the project and its link to \u200bexpanded cruise tourism could cause significant environmental consequences.<\/p>\n
Public \u200bopposition also surged online. A Change.org petition demanding the project be halted, launched in \u200cJuly 2025, in recent days reached more than \u200b4 million signatures.<\/p>\n
Organizers of the \u200bpetition say the planned 90-hectare (222-acre) water park would be built on protected mangroves, threatening the local way of life, community access to beaches and the survival of marine life.<\/p>\n
The area is near \u200bthe route of the Mayan Train, \u200ca government project meant to bring development to Indigenous Maya communities beyond the crowded beaches of \u200bCancun, but that local groups and environmentalists have criticized.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon, Writing by \u200bNatalia Siniawski; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and Cynthia Osterman)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Daina Beth Solomon and Natalia Siniawski MEXICO CITY, May 19 (Reuters) – Mexican authorities rejected a large water park planned by cruise company Royal Caribbean on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, Environment Minister \u200cAlicia Barcena said on Tuesday, following backlash from residents and environmental groups over the development’s ecological \u200cimpact. The rejection of the mega-tourism project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2424460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[475205,475204,435253,475207,475206,475208,305035,321258],"class_list":["post-2424459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-alicia-barcena","tag-caribbean-coast","tag-claudia-sheinbaum","tag-environmental-groups","tag-mahahual","tag-mass-development","tag-mexico","tag-royal-caribbean"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mexico-rejects-Royal-Caribbeans-Perfect-Day-water-park-on-Caribbean.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2424459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2424461,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424459\/revisions\/2424461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2424460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2424459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2424459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2424459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}