Cancun Region Gets Longer Evenings
Published 8-Dec-2014. Changed 14-Jan-2015
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo will set clocks forward one hour for good this year in order to boost the tourism sector by creating longer, lighter evenings.
Update January 14, 2015:
The clock change in Mexican state of Quintana Roo will occur earlier than anticipated. The state authorities just announced that clocks there will be set forward one hour at 2:00 (2 am) on Sunday, February 1, 2015. The state will not use Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the future, so it will have the same local time as central parts of the country during Mexico's DST period and be one hour ahead of central Mexico when DST ends and the rest of the country goes back to standard time.
Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
©bigtockphoto.com/Subbotina Anna
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo with its Caribbean coastline, is home to some of Mexico's hottest tourist destinations like Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel.
The move to set clocks forward one hour is designed to boost the tourism sector by creating longer, lighter evenings. Some also claim that it will help curb energy consumption.
Remains on Daylight Saving Time
The time-change will take place on Sunday, October 25, 2015, coinciding with Mexico ending DST when clocks are set back one hour to standard time. Instead of joining the rest of the country in ending DST, Quintana Roo will not set the clocks back, but will remain on DST, effectively creating a new time zone. Afterwards, the local time in Quintana Roo will be the same as Eastern Standard Time (EST).
The Quintana Roo state congress has approved a bill stating that clocks there will be set to one hour ahead of central areas of the country, including the country's capital Mexico City.
DST in Future Years
There are conflicting reports about the state's future use of DST. Quintana Roo might return to DST and set clocks forward again one hour during the summer months from 2016. This would mean that the time difference to the capital will be one hour all year.
Alternatively, Quintana Roo may remain on standard time all year. In that case, the state would be one hour ahead of Mexico City in the winter months but have the same local time during summer.
Mexico’s Time Zones and DST
There are currently three time zones in Mexico:
- Central Standard Time (CST), which is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), or UTC-6, and applies to most of the country including Mexico City. During DST, this region observes Central Daylight Time (CDT), which is UTC-5.
- Mountain Standard Time (MST), which is UTC-7 and applies to states such as Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora. During DST these areas, except Sonora, shift to Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), which is UTC-6.
- Pacific Standard Time (PST), which is UTC-8 and applies to areas such as Tijuana and Baja California. During DST, these areas shift to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), which is UTC-7.
From October 2015, Quintana Roo will either observe UTC-5 all year or alternate between UTC-5 and UTC-4.