Cancun, QR. The firm Muelles del Caribe, in charge of the construction of the fourth cruise ship dock in Cozumel, issued a position regarding the groups that oppose this work, assuring that there is no saturation of ports on the island, as its detractors are arguing.
According to the position of the company sent to El Economista, the main argument of the amparo filed by the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda) against the dock is unfounded, in the sense that “there are already enough cruise ship docks on the island, with seven world-class docking positions, which makes one more dock unnecessary.”
For this, the company relies on information from the Integral Port Administration of Quintana Roo (Apiqroo), according to which port occupation showed an accelerated growth trend of 26% between 2015 and 2019, a percentage that is estimated to resume its level. once recovered in 2023.
“Although the average annual occupancy rate was 53% in 2019, as the environmental group argues, it is also a fact that it is a market that is driven by tourism and is subject to high and low seasons. If the data is disaggregated, the saturation of the docks during the months considered as high season, on peak days the installed capacity is exceeded, which prevents the periodic and continuous arrival of more vessels”, argues Muelle del Caribe.
Regarding the Punta Langosta pier, which environmentalists assure will become a white elephant once a fourth pier in Cozumel comes into operation, Muelles del Caribe specifies that the work only responds to the constant requirements of other shipping companies that cannot find positions and operating windows available in any of the current terminals, making a greater investment to grow the market.
They also deny that a fourth pier will make Cozumel cheaper due to an oversupply of cruise ship berthing, arguing that “the new generations of cruise ships double in size and weight the passenger ships that were built 20 years ago, the same years old. of the docks of the current terminals, so that, to be at the forefront and maintain the position as a world-class destination, adequate infrastructure is required”.
“The new dock not only comes to keep Cozumel at the forefront of the cruise market, but also to expand its capacity to receive ships and tourists, since obviously the docks are built for future operations and not current ones, so it will need to have larger dimensions compared to those of the current docks”, adds the company.
In addition, they point directly to the Sand Dollar company for exploiting the area in which the new pier is currently planned and authorized since 2008, for which they assure that there is an economic interest and not necessarily an environmental one that is behind the opposition to the pier. .
Finally, they point out that other accusations against them is that “they will destroy species protected under NOM-059, in addition to causing serious problems for navigation and emerging marine rescue activities.”
“In this regard, it can be said that, to authorize the MIA, Semarnat corroborated coordinates and found no individuals listed in NOM-059-SEMARNAT 2001, confirming once again, given the existing MIA, a mostly sandy, slab-type substrate, with few patches of grass in poor condition,” adds Muelles del Caribe.
estados@eleconomista.mx
