Tulum Just Got Cheaper to Visit, by Presidential Decree

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Very few beach towns get repriced by presidential decree. On July 16, President Claudia Sheinbaum walked Tulum in person, touring Jaguar Park and the tourist zone with Governor Mara Lezama, stopping to hear residents out along the way. Four days later, a decree published in Mexico's Official Gazette of the Federation did something governments almost never do to a world-famous destination: it cut the price of visiting. The new rates took effect on July 20.

To understand why this matters, it helps to remember what a day at Tulum's most famous attraction had come to cost. Since the archaeological zone was folded into the new Jaguar Park system, visitors faced up to three separate charges: a park entry fee, a conservation fee for Mexico's protected areas commission, and the archaeological zone ticket itself. Independent travel guides tracking the structure put the stacked total for a foreign visitor at more than 500 pesos, roughly 28 US dollars per person, paid across multiple booths, with published rates set to climb further in 2026. The system drew steady criticism from visitors and sustained pushback from locals, and it turned one of Mexico's signature cultural sites into one of its most confusing tickets.

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The decree replaces that stack with numbers anyone can hold in their head. Entry to Jaguar Park is now completely free for every visitor. The archaeological zone and protected natural area cost 80 pesos for domestic visitors, the exact rate charged in 2018 and 2019, before Tulum's prices ran ahead of its infrastructure. International visitors pay 265 pesos, roughly half what the previous combined fees demanded. The electric transport inside the park drops to 20 pesos, matching what the old traditional train once charged. The beaches remain free, and anyone entering on foot through the traditional entrance pays nothing at all.

Then comes the part built of concrete rather than pesos. The wall at the park's traditional entrance, long criticized for sealing the ruins and coastline off from view, will be torn down and replaced with an open archway, restoring the sightline between the town, the archaeological site, and the sea. Military engineers have the job. An eco-friendly parking area is planned for the southern entrance so visitors can leave the car and continue by electric shuttle or on foot, the way the site was always meant to be approached.

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Tourism Secretary Josefina Rodriguez Zamora used the same visit to lay out the broader Tulum Plan that the fee cuts belong to. It includes a tourist care and attention model run in coordination with the National Guard, a professionalization and certification program for tourism service providers, a reorganization and improvement of the town's public services, a new public transportation system, a national and international promotion campaign, and a dedicated program to attract new air routes while strengthening the connection between Tulum International Airport and the town center.

None of this is happening in a vacuum, and the honest version of the story is more convincing than the polished one. Tulum has had a demanding stretch. International routes at the airport thinned sharply this year before Mexicana de Aviacion added eight new domestic frequencies earlier this month, and the town's pricing reputation had become a genuine drag on visitor sentiment. What the decree shows is not a market without problems. It shows a market whose problems are being answered at the highest level of the Mexican state, with fee cuts, engineering crews, a route development program, and the president's personal attention, all inside a single month.

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The entry price of Tulum's anchor attraction was just cut in half by federal order. The airport is gaining frequencies. The state and federal governments are visibly aligned on the same objective: more visitors, treated better, at fairer prices. Destinations in decline do not receive this kind of attention. Destinations being rebuilt for their next decade do.

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