Record volumes of sargassum are smothering Tulum's beaches this year, and the timing has pushed frustrated business owners to confront municipal officials over an environmental fee they say has brought no visible cleanup.
The municipality has collected close to 2,500 tons of sargassum so far in 2026, according to municipal figures, nearly double the roughly 1,300 tons gathered over the same period in 2025. For a destination that has already lost ground to a string of other problems, an early and oversized season has arrived at the worst possible moment.
Sargassum arrivals in Tulum have roughly doubled this year
Local officials describe 2026 as an atypical year. David Buchanan, the municipal Zofemat director, said the algae began washing ashore in January rather than the late March or early April window the agency had expected, and that the volume is more than double last year's. He framed the surge as something outside the municipality's control or ability to predict.
The pattern matches what scientists are tracking across the wider Caribbean. Monitoring groups in Quintana Roo have called this one of the most intense seasons since the first mass arrivals in 2015, with a record band of algae drifting across the Atlantic. The Secretaría de Marina has projected that the state could collect more than 100,000 tons in 2026.
Along Boca Paila, the road through Tulum's most exclusive beach strip, the smell of decomposing sargassum carries well before the shoreline comes into view. Where the sand is usually white and the water turquoise, much of it now sits brown and matted with algae.
Hoteliers say the sanitation fee they pay produced no cleanup
The frustration boiled over at a meeting where business owners convened with local authorities, where the message to officials was blunt. Javier, a Spanish business owner based in Tulum, urged the room to stop blaming the usual targets and start with the basics. Clean the destination first, he argued, before promoting a place that is visibly dirty.
The sharpest exchange centered on money. Franchesca, an Italian hotelier who has run a small property in the area for decades, said hoteliers have paid an environmental sanitation fee for years without seeing any benefit from it. She said the trust meant to manage those funds, which was supposed to be created two years ago, still has not been formed, and that operators are told only that it is waiting on a signature.
She said operators have no information about where the money has gone or whether it is being used at all. A restaurant owner who declined to give her name added that Tulum had weathered the sargassum problem for a decade before the last few years tipped it into crisis.
Municipal officials answered the fee questions with questions of their own
When it was the government's turn, the answers leaned on promises and deflection. Sergio Canto, the municipality's enforcement director, did not say where the sanitation money had gone. Instead, he turned the question back on the room, suggesting the discussion start with which businesses are properly registered and which are not, and that the spending question could come later.
The mayor, Diego Castañón Trejo, did not attend. Municipal officials represented him. Residents and business owners have criticized what they describe as his limited presence in the municipality, a complaint that has followed his administration as occupancy and revenue have fallen.
For-sale signs, closed restaurants, and complaints about prices and policing
Sargassum is the most visible problem, but business owners list it last among the forces hollowing out the town. Walk the main avenues and the for-sale signs are hard to miss, advertising houses, apartments, commercial spaces, and entire buildings. Restaurants and hotels have closed, and parts of the center feel empty at certain hours.
Owners point to a reputation for mistreating tourists, inflated prices, and a real estate bubble that pushed costs out of step with the experience on offer. One business owner cited a 500-peso ice cream cone as the kind of markup driving visitors away. Another accused local authorities of shaking down businesses, an allegation of police extortion involving money that he said is not reported anywhere. These are claims from operators, and the officials present did not address them directly.
Some owners also described invasions of beachfront hotels and lots by organized groups. They said cases over the seizures stall in court, which leaves properties shuttered and their stretches of beach unattended while sargassum piles up. Garbage and rubble on the streets, they added, compound the impression of a place that has stopped tending to itself.
In Playa del Carmen, cleanup workers report health problems
A few kilometers north, Playa del Carmen faces a similar scene, though more visitors still move through its streets than onto its beaches. The continuous arrival of algae has hit hotels, restaurants, fishing, and services alike, and some workers who remove it have started to report health effects.
José Gómez Burgos, president of the Cooperativa Turística del Mar Caribe, said cleanup crews are not used to handling decomposing sargassum and have developed problems affecting their lungs and legs. He argued that the response has been underfunded, describing the investment as arriving with an eyedropper when the scale of the problem demands a major public work.
His proposed fix is an offshore barrier engineered to double as a reef. Without serious action, he warned, the pressure of living under a constant threat will keep emptying the coast. He said restaurants are already closed and hotels already vacated, with people leaving rather than absorbing the strain.
A pending trust signature and a proposed offshore barrier
For now, the immediate questions sit with the municipality. The sanitation trust remains unformed, the fee keeps being collected, and operators want a public accounting of both. At the state and federal level, the Secretaría de Marina has reinforced its fleet and barriers, and Quintana Roo is weighing a large offshore barrier between Cozumel and Tulum meant to intercept sargassum before it fragments near shore. Whether any of it lands before the next wave is the question business owners are now asking out loud.
Should hoteliers keep paying an environmental sanitation fee while the trust meant to manage it remains unformed? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.