Too Little Too Late? Mexico Tourism 2009

By Author: Thomas Lloyd
Total Articles: 501
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This spring I have been seeing news stories and large amount of articles of the dangers and risks of coming to Mexico to visit or to vacation. The majority of the stories have spoken of the entire country of Mexico in general, and unfortunately did not speak of regions or neighborhoods where the incidences were occurring whether it was some neighborhood of Mexico City, or some region of the state of Baja California.

I also noted the misfortuneate timing of these news events being in the spring time which is basically effecting Mexico's tourist high season and which is also effecting my area of work, the Mexico Real Estate industry. Lately though, I have starting to notice some articles that are becoming aware of the spilling over effects and have started to correct or attempt to report the data with a little more investigation and detail. My question, Is this too little too late?

This morning as I read through various articles I came across one that caught my attention inside of the Wall Street Journal. This article reported that many of the Mexican resort cities that are more than 1,300 miles away ...
... from the violent clashes, are witnessing cancellations and having their businesses effected. The article is more complete by reporting more details so travellers are not making travelling and cancellation decisions based on partial information.

One of the quotes which I found interesting,

Despite the travel alert, we are not advising people not to go to Mexico, says Heide Bronke Fulton, a State Department spokeswoman. She adds that the main areas of concern are cities and towns near the U.S. border. Travel alerts, which can caution against everything from cyclone season to terrorism threats, are far less severe than the State Department's warnings, in place for countries like Iraq and Sudan, which essentially advise against traveling to a country altogether.

After speaking with several visitors down here in Mexico this past week I realized the importance of passing this information and these types of articles and updates through channels such as Mexico Real Estate Blogs and other mediums on the Internet. The visitors from up north advised that the news being heard on the television and many news sources is quite harsh. Very bad and negative. People and my family have come to me and asked me to cancel my trips down to Mexico. I had to pull out a map and show them where I was going and where the problem areas were occurring. Even the Mexico tourism department has become very alarmed at the generalization of the reports up north and their effect on their economy. They have published a map on the internet to help visitors understand the locations.

Unfortunately, the messages of pinpointing locations and distances may have missed the high season period. The Mexico tourist department is rushing trying to correct this mishap. It is April, a good portion of the high season has already been incorrectly effected. The year for tourism in Mexico was starting strong, but now several hotels and businesses are now concerned in the cancellations that have occurred. Lets hope that this other message continues to be transmitted effectively to help recover some of the drop in reservations and travel plans for the rest of the year.