The economic importance of cruise liners arriving at Mexico’s Pacific coastal resorts cannot be underestimated.

Passengers alighting from cruise ships represent nine percent of all tourists visiting Puerto Vallarta each year. Between January and June of this year, Vallarta welcomed 456,435 cruise passengers, who arrived mainly on trips starting from either Long Beach or San Diego, each of whom spent an average of US$80.64 in the resort during their brief stopover - almost US$37 million, according to the National Statistics Institute (Inegi).

Not only is Jalisco benefiting from the cruise liner invasion but also states to the north, such as Sinaloa and Baja California, home to the tourism hotspots of Mazatlan and Los Cabos.

To the south of Puerto Vallarta, the capacity of the cruise dock in Manzanillo in Colima was expanded in 2022 with two new mooring spaces to receive large vessels. That effort was rewarded last week when the Norwegian Bliss, one of the largest cruise ships sailing the Mexican Pacific, docked in the port for the first time with 3,865 passengers and 1,643 crew members aboard.

Calling the vessel’s arrival a “milestone,” Colima authorities said the ship remained in the port for ten hours, adding around 4.5 million pesos to the local economy.

The Norwegian Bliss regularly visits Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta on five and seven-day cruises. The ship’s Manzanillo stopover is included in Norwegian’s 15-day cruise from Los Angeles, which, after stopping at Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, continues to Manzanillo, Acapulco, Puerto Quetzal, Panama City and Cartagena, and ends in Miami.

The cruise line company’s next scheduled 15-day adventures are December 6-21 and January 27-February 11, 2024, with prices starting at $US1,348 based on double occupancy.