OP
gopbroek
Contributor
And the money goes to Mexico City and disappears. The fee does not stay local, the idea, like the ever increasing airport use fee, is to soak the tourists.
Marine park fee increase?
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OP
gopbroek
Contributor
The old Caleta hosting primarily the Pirates has never been fuller.
The continuous rise in fees, along with the poor condition of the reefs, has me rethinking any future trips. Have you looked at your airline ticket lately? It's 40-50% fees, then when you arrive, there's the "sanitation tax" of 31 Pesos every day at the hotel, plus the always-increasing marine park fees. For the sanitation fee, I still can't put toilet paper in the toilet and I can't let the tap water get into any bodily orifices. For the marine park fee, I get to dive in a supposed protected area devoid of a healthy marine ecosystem. 
^^ I get what you are saying but we are seeing increasing fees and deteriorating reefs in most other places too. Shall we quit going on dive trips? Airfare to Coz is still the cheapest in the Caribbean. Coz is one of the few destinations where you can visit and pay semi-local prices for lodging and food. When I go to places like Bonaire, Curacao, Caymans, etc. how I only wish I could get a cheap room for $40/nt or find a taqueria for a $5 dinner.
mikeycanuk
Contributor
I personally just manage my expectations, especially once we went to the Pacific, coz is an easy Christmas trip with cheap accommodations and good food. it's become a 2nd home.
And that right there is why someone else has my boat keys and I'm in Asia!!!
sefuchs
Contributor
The continuous rise in fees, along with the poor condition of the reefs, has me rethinking any future trips. Have you looked at your airline ticket lately? It's 40-50% fees, then when you arrive, there's the "sanitation tax" of 31 Pesos every day at the hotel, plus the always-increasing marine park fees. For the sanitation fee, I still can't put toilet paper in the toilet and I can't let the tap water get into any bodily orifices. For the marine park fee, I get to dive in a supposed protected area devoid of a healthy marine ecosystem.
Yes costs have gone up significantly in Coz (for tourists and locals) but it is still one the cheapest dive destinations in the world. Diving is good, people are friendly, reefs are in good shape, (ya current bleaching issue but that should clear). From a business perspective I really don't know how dive shops (and restaurants) survive with their low prices. Can't understand people complaining about the price increases in Coz when you compare to anywhere else in the world. Hawaii charges $250 for a 2-tank dive, other Carribean islands charge 50% more than Coz, most of Indonesia is about the same dive price as Coz but generally there are fuel surcharges or other added charges.
I sure hope the reefs bounce back. I was there recently and was shocked at how bad they looked. Huge swaths were either bleached and in dire stress or had already died and were brown and covered in algae. Far fewer reef fish than I had expected. It was my first trip to the island, so I don't have a baseline with which to compare what I saw to how things were before. And yeah, all tropical reefs around the world are under increasing stress. But wow, the Coz reefs looked really, really bad.
Diving there is cheap, good but inexpensive accommodations can be had, and the food is both excellent and can be had at reasonable prices. But for me - and I only speak for myself - the diving value just isn't there. I'd rather pay more and see better reef conditions somewhere else.
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