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By Daina Beth Solomon and Natalia Siniawski<\/p>\n
MEXICO CITY, May 19 (Reuters) – Mexican authorities will reject a large water park planned by cruise company Royal Caribbean on Mexico’s \u200cCaribbean coast, Environment Minister Alicia Barcena said on Tuesday, following backlash from residents and \u200cenvironmental groups over the development’s ecological impact.<\/p>\n
The rejection of the mega-tourism project underscores growing resistance to mass development in \u200bMexico’s pristine coastal regions.<\/p>\n
“It is not going to be approved,” Barcena told a press conference, noting that the company was also taking steps to withdraw the project.<\/p>\n
Royal Caribbean said it did not yet have information regarding the government’s decision.<\/p>\n
Slated to debut in fall 2027 in Mahahual, a beach \u200ctown near a coral reef, \u2060the project dubbed Perfect Day was advertised as the “biggest, baddest, boldest destination,” offering beach clubs, pools, bars and more than 30 waterslides.<\/p>\n
Mexican President Claudia \u2060Sheinbaum echoed the environmental concerns during her daily morning press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n
“We must not do anything that affects that area, which has a very important ecological balance, and is particularly important for \u200bthe reefs,” \u200bSheinbaum said.<\/p>\n
ENVIRONMENTAL PUSHBACK<\/p>\n
Mahahual, home to fewer than 3,000 \u200bpeople, sits within one of the \u200cmost ecologically diverse and fragile regions in the western Caribbean. It is surrounded by turtle nesting beaches, protected mangrove forests and corridors that serve as habitats for jaguars, ocelots and Central American tapirs.<\/p>\n
Just offshore lies the Mesoamerican Reef, the second-largest barrier reef system in the world.<\/p>\n
Environmental group Greenpeace warned that the region was at a “crucial juncture,” noting that the project and its \u200clink to expanded cruise tourism could cause significant environmental \u200bconsequences.<\/p>\n
Public opposition also surged online. A Change.org petition demanding \u200bthe project be halted, launched in July \u200b2025, in recent days reached more than 4 million signatures.<\/p>\n
Organizers of the \u200cpetition say the planned 90-hectare (222-acre) water park \u200bwould be built on \u200bprotected mangroves, threatening the local way of life, community access to beaches and the survival of marine life.<\/p>\n
The area is near the route of the Mayan Train, a \u200bgovernment project meant to bring \u200cdevelopment to Indigenous Maya communities beyond the crowded beaches of Cancun, but that \u200blocal groups and environmentalists have criticized.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon, Writing by Natalia \u200bSiniawski; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and Cynthia Osterman)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n