Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Sept. 10, 2026 – ASIPONA opened a public competition Sept. 4 for a private operator to build and run a three-berth cruise home port.
The federal notice offers a 17-year assignment of port rights covering 95,172 square meters. A second 17-year term could be granted under federal port law.
Interested bidders can purchase the competition documents through Friday, Sept. 11. The nonrefundable packet costs 950,000 pesos plus value-added tax.
Local effects would extend beyond the cruise terminal
We reviewed the notice alongside ASIPONA’s 2026-2031 Port Development Master Program. Together, the documents describe a change in how cruise passengers would use Puerto Vallarta.
The city now operates mainly as a port of call. Ships arrive, passengers spend several hours ashore, and vessels depart later that day, according to ASIPONA.
A home port serves as the starting and ending point for cruise itineraries. ASIPONA describes the model as cruise lines that “inicien y finalicen itinerarios en Puerto Vallarta” — begin and end itineraries in the city.
That would require passenger check-in, luggage processing, boarding, and final disembarkation. Cruise ships would also need food, merchandise, and other supplies before departure.
ASIPONA’s master program anticipates additional commercial flights, road arrivals and hotel stays before and after cruises. It also projects more demand for public transportation and port-related employment. Those are agency projections, not benefits guaranteed by the competition.
The maritime terminal is on Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio at kilometer 4.5 in Zona Hotelera Norte. ASIPONA places the airport about 3.5 kilometers from the port, creating a short transfer corridor for arriving passengers.
The plan does not estimate how many additional vehicles or public transportation trips home-port operations could generate.
The public notice does not identify a municipal contribution or government construction budget. It assigns construction, equipment, and operation responsibilities to the winning concession holder. Earlier reporting on the planned port expansion said ASIPONA expected the selected operator to finance the work.
Competition covers all three cruise piers
Mexican and foreign bidders may participate. They must have experience operating cruise or nautical tourism terminals.
Each bidder must also show assets or subscribed capital of at least 200 million pesos as of the end of 2025.
The agreement would cover 38,445 square meters of land and 56,727 square meters of water. The winning operator would build, equip, and manage a public-use terminal serving the port’s three cruise piers.
Its responsibilities would include docking services and the boarding and disembarkation of passengers. The operator would also provide other port and tourism services listed in the competition documents.
The concession holder could develop commercial and entertainment spaces, either directly or through agreements with other businesses. The notice excludes casinos, betting operations, nightclubs, street vending and political or religious promotion.
Purchasing the documents does not automatically qualify an applicant to submit a proposal. Interested parties must also meet the requirements contained in the bidding package.
The publicly available notice does not provide the proposal deadline, award date, construction schedule or projected opening. It says the competition calendar is contained in the documents sold to participants.
ASIPONA may declare the competition unsuccessful, cancel it or suspend it under conditions established in those documents.
Project moved from planning to private bidding
Mexico’s General Directorate of Ports approved Puerto Vallarta’s new master program July 10. The plan identifies the home port as its principal development project for the 2026-2031 period.
ASIPONA had already presented the project during the Seatrade Cruise Global conference in April. The agency reported meetings with cruise lines and port operators, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC, ITM Group, Global Ports Holding and SSA Marine México.
Those meetings do not establish that any company has entered the competition. The Sept. 4 notice does not name prospective bidders.
Puerto Vallarta recorded 171 international cruise calls and 535,132 passengers during 2025, according to figures attributed to ASIPONA. Passenger traffic fell 2.37% from 2024 despite four additional ship calls.
PVDN’s continuing cruise coverage has documented how ship schedules affect tour operators, transportation services, and businesses near Marina Vallarta, the Malecón, and downtown.
Puerto Vallarta will remain a port of call while the competition proceeds. Home-port service would begin only after infrastructure is completed and cruise lines schedule itineraries originating in the city.