California and the West : Tourist Fee Is a Difficult Journey : Mexico: The process to pay for a 150-peso permit for staying in Baja California longer than three days is not ‘simple and quick.’ Some fear damage to the local economy.

Fidgeting as he waited in a Tijuana bank, Matt Parry did not look like a man on a relaxing fishing getaway.

He had already stopped at a Mexican immigration office after crossing the border from San Ysidro to apply for a tourist permit. Now he had walked a quarter-mile to the bank to pay a new, 150-peso fee (about $16.50 at the current exchange rate) that would make the permit legal. The detour had cost him nearly an hour, and his buddy--who had stayed behind to watch Parry’s truck and boat near the busy crossing--would then have to go through the same drill himself.

Their early start would no longer be sufficient to get the pair to Bahia de Los Angeles, a popular fishing spot midway down the Baja California peninsula, by nightfall.

“I have no problem paying the fee. But the process leaves a bit to be desired,” said Parry, a police officer who lives in Yorba Linda.

When Mexico announced the implementation of the fee for tourists visiting at least three days or traveling beyond a designated border zone, one high-ranking Ministry of Tourism official told reporters the most important thing was to make sure the procedure would “be simple and quick.”

Since the fee went into effect July 1, it has been anything but that in Baja California, which has some travelers angrier than a freshly hooked marlin. The new process is also raising hackles among Baja business owners and tourism officials who fear that it is harming a crucial segment of their state’s economy.

“Basically, the whole thing is just very uncomfortable for tourists,” said George Gamboa, a Los Angeles-based regional director for the Mexican Department of Tourism. “Many of them are driving big trucks or RVs and cannot park anywhere, and a lot of them are senior citizens, which makes it even worse.”

Baja tourism officials estimate that the fee could affect as many as 1 million visitors a year. It is required of those who stay in Baja longer than 72 hours or who venture beyond Ensenada or San Felipe, after crossing the border at either Tijuana, Tecate or Mexicali.

Tourists arriving by land must first visit the immigration office, show proof of citizenship, fill out a one-page form and have it stamped. They then must find an open bank, pay the fee and get the forms stamped. The permit is supposed to be turned in upon leaving the country.

(Those who arrive by air pay the fee through a tax on their airplane tickets and do not have to follow the cumbersome procedure.)

“I’ve never been in a Mexican bank without at least a half-hour wait, have you?” said Fred Jones, vice president and general manager of Vagabundos del Mar, a Mexico travel club with 14,000 members.

In Tijuana, the bank window in the customs office closest to the immigration office is not yet authorized to accept payment.

So tourists have to walk four blocks to the nearest bank or drive into downtown Tijuana. Adding to the confusion, there are no signs advising arriving tourists of the new fee.

Some have encountered immigration offices with no forms, bank tellers who are unfamiliar with the forms and immigration officers, flanked by armed soldiers at roadside checkpoints, who aren’t sure what to do with travelers who lack stamped documents.

The fee, which applies per person regardless of age, does not affect Mexican citizens or tourists who do not travel past Ensenada or San Felipe, unless they are staying more than 72 hours in Mexico. That is good news for those on a quick outing for Baja-style lobster in Puerto Nuevo, a round of golf at Bajamar or a weekend shopping spree in Ensenada.

But it’s not so good for frequent fliers to Cabo San Lucas or La Paz, who, while avoiding having to go to a bank or immigration office, do have to pay the fee each time they fly into Mexico. Nor is it good news for serious Baja adventurers who prefer to drive the peninsula, boats and trailers in tow, so they can explore at their own pace.

For some, the first-ever fee is annoyance enough.

“Some say they don’t like the idea of paying anything,” said Juan Tintos Funcke, secretary of tourism for the state of Baja California Norte, the northern half of the 1,000-mile peninsula. “We went from charging nothing to charging $16, and that’s a lot.”

Mexican officials say that the fee, which is good for up to 180 days for land travelers, provides needed revenue--conservatively estimated at $120 million annually--to modernize immigration systems and more aggressively promote tourism.

Besides, officials say, most other countries charge for tourist visas.

The United States, they note, assesses Mexicans $45 for a tourist visa application, even if it’s later turned down. Mexican border dwellers with daily crossing permits must pay an extra $6 for permission to venture more than 25 miles north of the border for up to six months.

Nevertheless, complaints are coming from across the board.

“Nobody knows what the hell they’re doing or what the rules are,” said Juanita Peterman Fitzpatrick, owner of the Cielito Lindo Hotel in San Quintin, a sleepy fishing destination on the Pacific, about 190 miles south of the border. “Talk to five officials and you’ll get five different answers. Our business is definitely suffering because of it.”

Jim Harer, owner of the nearby Old Mill Hotel, said he has only five guests this week when he should have 15 or more. Both hotel owners are considering layoffs.

In mainland Mexico, where tourists driving into the country are also required to pay a nominal automobile fee as well, they can pay their fees at the same stop at the border.

But in Baja, it is necessary to find an open bank to complete the procedure. And if you want to get an early start on, say, Sunday morning to reach Catavin by late afternoon, that would be impossible.

Mexican immigration officials say the fee only has to be paid at a bank sometime before the visitor leaves Mexico. “It’s easy to be legal,” said Francisco Vega Castilla, a Mexican immigration officer at the Tijuana border crossing.

Some tourists, however, have complained of being turned back at the first checkpoint south of Ensenada on Mexico 1, the only thoroughfare that runs the length of Baja, and being told they needed the bank-stamped documents to continue.

Mexican immigration officials have set up a makeshift depot at the first checkpoint at Maneadero, 15 miles outside Ensenada, where soldiers also occasionally conduct random checks for weapons and drugs.

If tourists fail for one reason or another to obtain or fill out the forms at the border, they can do so at the checkpoint but must still find a bank at some point to complete the process.

An official is not always on duty at Maneadero, and people have boasted of completing their vacations without complying with the rules and of never being checked. But when an official is on duty, the wait to complete the paperwork has ranged from several minutes to several hours, according to Harer.

Despite the inconveniences, not all travelers take issue with the fee.

“In my opinion, the uproar is mostly among provincials who believe other countries should give us special treatment,” said Gene Kira, 52, a San Diego author who has written or co-written three books on Baja. “How many of them have ever stood in line at our INS and received the treatment we give people from other countries?”

Con Mlinek, a sailor seeking a permit last week, voiced little patience with the griping. “It’s like going to the DMV in California,” he said. “You don’t argue.”

At this point, it is too early to determine what impact the 150-peso fee will have on Baja’s tourist trade, which for years has risen and fallen according to California’s fortunes.

Northern Baja tourism, counting business commuters and including the fast-booming film industry, generates $1.2 billion a year, Tintos said.

Last year, he added, more than 9 million automobiles passed through toll plazas from Tijuana to Ensenada, and 349,000 tourists disembarked cruise ships in Ensenada, the second-busiest cruise destination in Mexico. Cruise ship passengers do not have to pay the fee unless they remain off the boat 72 hours or longer.

Tijuana tourism officials complained when the fee program began, that the system was unduly complicated and could even frighten away short-term visitors not subject to the fee.

Vega, the Mexican immigration officer, counters that the process has gone smoothly at the main Tijuana office, which is issuing from 50 to 200 tourist permits a day. He added that tourists staying longer than 72 hours or venturing deeper into Mexico were always required to get a tourist permit. The difference is the fee.

Vega concedes that it is impossible to know how many people have skirted paying. Mexico has far more relaxed immigration controls than the United States at the land border. Visitors who leave on land routinely do not pass through Mexican immigration and wouldn’t be asked where they went or how long they stayed. But Vega warns that scofflaws could face fines.

However, Tintos says that Baja cannot afford to anger or scare off tourists and he is attempting to persuade government officials to simplify the fee procedure or reduce or eliminate the fee for those entering Baja by land.

“To me a win-win situation would be to facilitate [simplifying the procurement procedure] first, and to lower the fees for land-based tourists. I see that as a possibility,” he said.

“Of course an ideal situation would be for the land tourists not to pay at all.”