Visitors Are Still Flocking to Mexico Despite Recent U.S. Travel Warnings Kari Paul - MarketWatch
go to original October 19, 2017

It's official: Tourists keep flocking to Mexico despite U.S. warnings (Magic Eyes/123rf)

Mexico has welcomed record numbers of visitors in recent years, but a safety warning from the U.S. has cast a long shadow on visitors’ arrivals. In August, the U.S. issued a travel advisory for many areas in Mexico due to rising violent crime including kidnapping, homicide, robbery and carjacking. Although drug violence has led to warnings in the past, this most recent advisory included Cancún and Los Cabos, two of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. One of the areas affected by the advisory is Oaxaca, where MarketWatch reporter Emma Court was recently robbed at gunpoint during a cooking class.

Some popular Mexican destinations are attempting to ease travelers’ fears. This comes after the number of tourists visiting Mexico soared to record heights in 2016 to 35 million visitors — up 9% from 2015. In the first three months of 2017, the country also saw record numbers, with 9.3 million visitors bringing in $5 billion in revenue. Tourism was previously forecast to become the third biggest source of revenue in the country by 2018.

But American tourists are conflicted. On the one hand, they’re looking for relatively cheap getaways for beach and sun, and the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean make travel there difficult. On the other hand, the travel advisory to Mexico came at a bad time: as travelers are planning vacations for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Viral videos of violence in the country don’t help to ease the perception it is unsafe.

“It is a place where there is violence — and violence down there is usually accompanied by guns,” said Tim Bradley, a security expert at IMG GlobalSecur, a Florida-based company that provides security to high-level executives abroad.

Now, members of the tourism industry are scrambling to address violence on the rise in certain cities, They are doubling down on selling vacation spots to tourists as safe. In fact, even the U.S. State Department said in its travel warning: “Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the level of drug-related violence and crime that are reported in the border region or in areas along major trafficking routes.” Still, resorts relying on tourist activity are going out of their way to make tourists feel safe, said Rodrigo Esponda, the managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board.

“We have launched a new action plan with key steps to make sure Cabo is viewed as a safe destination,” Rodrigo Esponda, the managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board. Esponda and the city of Los Cabos obviously have a vested interest in the topic: Largely reliant on tourism, some 90% of locals there work in hospitality. Los Cabos hosted 2.1 million visitors last year, 75% of whom were from outside of Mexico.

Read the rest at MarketWatch

Related: Mexico Ready for Millions of Tourists, Says President Peña Nieto (Prensa Latina)

Related: Mexico’s Tourism Secretary Kicks Off 30th Travel Mart in Cancun (The Yucatan Times)

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