10 Federal Agreements Land in Tulum as Tourism Discontent Deepens

President Claudia Sheinbaum announced 10 agreements in Tulum on Friday morning, cutting admission prices at Jaguar Park Tulum, adding electric shuttles and a parking lot, and repeating that the park's beaches belong to the public.

The announcement came during the Conferencia del Pueblo held at the military air base beside Tulum International Airport, at the end of a working visit in which Sheinbaum toured the park and met behind closed doors with hoteliers, merchants, artisans, and fishers.

For Tulum, the timing matters. Business owners have spent months tying the park's gate fees to a slump in visitors, and the federal government arrived in the middle of that argument rather than after it.

The ten agreements, point by point

According to the announcement, the package emerged from the working tables held with the tourism sector. The 10 agreements are:

• Free entry to the Jaguar Park for national visitors, eliminating the access cost for Mexicans.
• A reduction in access fees, set at 80 pesos for national visitors and 265 pesos for foreign visitors, with free entry for nationals on Sundays.
• An electric mobility system inside the park, connecting its different entrances and attractions.
• A tourist care and assistance model run in coordination with the National Guard, aimed at security and visitor support.
• A training, professionalization, and certification program for tourism service providers.
• Construction of a parking lot at the park's south access, described as one of the population's main demands.
• A maintenance and improvement plan for public services across the municipality of Tulum.
• A new public transport system for Tulum, covering both residents and visitors.
• A permanent national and international promotion campaign built around the cultural, culinary, and natural draw of Tulum and Quintana Roo.
• A program to attract new air routes and strengthen connectivity through Tulum International Airport and the Maya Train.

Two entry prices announced on the same morning

The first two points sit awkwardly together. One states that Mexicans will no longer pay to enter the park. The other sets a national fee of 80 pesos, alongside 265 pesos for foreigners, and adds that Sundays are free for nationals.

Authorities did not publicly reconcile the two figures during the announcement. Under the scheme agreed in November 2025, the Secretaría de Turismo drew a line between the protected natural area and the archaeological zone, charging a unified fee for visitors who wanted both while allowing free movement to the beaches. Whether the 80 peso ticket now refers to the ruins alone has not been clarified.

The previous unified rate announced by Sectur was 60 pesos for nationals and 220 pesos for foreigners on Sundays, which places the new figures above that baseline while still sitting far below the charges that provoked the complaints in the first place. Residents of Tulum have had free access to the protected area since the park opened.

Ten public accesses and the promise of free beaches at Jaguar Park Tulum

Before presenting the agreements, officials said 10 public beach accesses have now been consolidated, eight of them operating inside the park, including the traditional entrance. Federal and state authorities repeated that the beaches are free for Mexicans and foreigners alike.

That line has been repeated before. Governor Mara Lezama made the same commitment from Tulum in November 2025, naming Playa Santa Fe, Pescadores, Maya, and Mangle as free every day of the year. What changed since then, in the government's account, is the number of doors.

The complaint that reached Sheinbaum was never only about price. It was about the physical difficulty of reaching the sand.

Electric shuttles, a parking lot, and the National Guard at the gates

Three of the agreements respond directly to that friction. The electric mobility system addresses a gap visitors have flagged since March, when the internal shuttle service was suspended on Sundays without notice while private cars remained barred, leaving families to walk long stretches to the coast in full heat. The parking lot at the south access answers the same problem from the road side.

The National Guard component folds security into the visitor experience, an unusual framing for a beach destination and a reminder that the park sits inside a polygon administered with Sedena involvement. The certification program for service providers targets the quality complaints that hoteliers raised in the closed session on Thursday.

Price monitoring, sargassum, and night lighting at the ruins

Officials also listed actions already underway: permanent monitoring of the Quién es Quién en los Precios program in the tourism sector, supervision of service providers inside the protected area, work on an Ecological Ordering Program, updates to the Urban Development Program and to the Jaguar Park's management plan, a sargassum cleanup strategy, tourism certification schemes, a sports and cultural calendar, and the inauguration of night lighting at the Tulum archaeological zone, scheduled for November.

Sargassum was one of three stated priorities for the presidential tour, alongside the park and the arrival of the first Maya Train cargo locomotives. Sheinbaum said this week that warmer ocean temperatures explain the heavier landings this year.

Business closures and a petition preceded the visit

The federal package arrives on ground that has been contested for more than a year. Reporting by Proceso in November 2025 described artisan shops around the archaeological zone going under after coastal stretches that were once open began charging fees. A Change.org petition has circulated calling for the Jaguar Park to be separated from the zone, arguing that Sedena's charges for beach and trail access drove visitors away, according to La Jornada.

Tulum's mayor, Diego Castañón Trejo, publicly accused Grupo Mundo Maya of failing to honor commitments made across more than 10 meetings. Sheinbaum acknowledged on Thursday that discontent persists and said the government already had a first diagnosis before she landed.

The dates nobody has announced

None of the 10 agreements came with a start date. The parking lot has no timeline, the bus system has no operator, and the new fee structure has no published effective date. The night lighting is set for November, though the announcement did not specify which entrance schedule it will follow.

Sheinbaum's tour continues through Sunday with stops in Playa del Carmen and Cancún. Whether the second round of agreements holds where the first one slipped will be measured at the gate, not at the podium.

Do the new Jaguar Park fees and accesses go far enough to bring visitors back to Tulum? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.