Park Fee

[dlofting]

Now I'm totally confused.

Actually I like it when all the charges are in pesos, but I do understand that a lot of the dive operators expenses are in American dollars so it makes sense for them to charge in the same.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

This is different. The fee is quoted separately from trip charges. I suppose there is some reason it's not simply included therein?

You don't mark up sales taxes, do you...??

It is a cost of doing business that goes way beyond collecting your $2.. Take it from there if you have ever run a business.



Dave

 

[DandyDon]

It is a cost of doing business that goes way beyond collecting your $2.. Take it from there if you have ever run a business.

A lot like a sales tax.

You don't mark up sales taxes, do you...??

 

[El Graduado]

This is not a tax that is supposed to be passed on directly to the client like sales tax (or the IVA in Mexico). It is a fee that is imposed by the Marine Park. It is like the entrance fee Eco Parque Sur or San Gervasio Ruin Park collects from people entering one of those two parks. If you enter one of those parks as an individual, you pay the entrance fee at the gate. If you enter one of those two terrestrial parks with a tour, accompanied by a tour guide aboard a vehicle provided by the tour company, the tour operator bundles the park entrance fee into the price you pay them for the tour. When the tour operators calculate what price they will charge their clients for services provided, they base that price on the cost of providing that service, one of which is the cost of the park entrance fee. For dive shops it is the same process. The Marine Park fee is one of those costs involved in providing the service. If a dive operation choses to disclose the fee separately from the price of the dive, they may quote: The base price of the fee charged by the Marine Park; The base price of the fee charged by the Marine Park plus the IVA the Marine Park charges the dive operator on the fee, or; The base price of the fee, plus the IVA, plus the dive operator’s administrative costs (accounting, messenger service, etc.) involved in reporting and procuring the use permits from the Marine Park. If they choose to round it out to the closest dollar, (we are talking 3 dollars or less, right?) that seems more than reasonable to me, especially when the prices are quoted in dollars by the dive shops and US coins are not in regular circulation in Cozumel. No dive shop in Cozumel is making a killing collecting and remitting this park fee; they just try not to LOSE money doing it.

 

[Pelagicsal]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had tags that were good for a longer time, such as a year? So much less trash (in the ocean and landfills) and, for some, a nifty on-gear souvenir of Cozumel.

Day trippers could still use the wrist bands, but those here for longer periods could get ONE tag instead of several wrist bands.

 

[ggunn]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had tags that were good for a longer time, such as a year? So much less trash (in the ocean and landfills) and, for some, a nifty on-gear souvenir of Cozumel.

Day trippers could still use the wrist bands, but those here for longer periods could get ONE tag instead of several wrist bands.

How much should such a tag cost? Some folks dive Cozumel hundreds of times over the course of a year. Others (like me) are only there for a week or two in a year. I wouldn't want to buy an expensive yearlong tag for only a few days diving.

A better idea might be for dive ops to buy a yearly license to dive the park and distribute the cost to their customers on a per dive basis. But some ops get a lot more customers than others.

Maybe what they have now is the best alternative. Maybe they have thought about all this already.

 

[mmmbelows]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had tags that were good for a longer time, such as a year? So much less trash (in the ocean and landfills) and, for some, a nifty on-gear souvenir of Cozumel.

Day trippers could still use the wrist bands, but those here for longer periods could get ONE tag instead of several wrist bands.

I like Bonaire's system, similar to what you're suggesting, one tag good for your stay, and they change the designs every year, people keep those little tags as souvenirs, seen more than one diver with his "brag badges" of 20 years worth of different designs of the marine park tags attached to his BC.

 

[ReefHound]

I would prefer they do away with the bracelets and manage the accounting another way, to prevent these bracelets ending up as trash in the water.

 

[cvchief]

I would prefer they do away with the bracelets and manage the accounting another way, to prevent these bracelets ending up as trash in the water.

Amen!

 

[ggunn]

I would prefer they do away with the bracelets and manage the accounting another way, to prevent these bracelets ending up as trash in the water.

Mine always makes it to shore with me and I have never seen one loose in the water.