Mexico reports major decline in tourism due to narco crime, world economic woes

Faltering economies in the United States and Europe have combined with unprecedented levels of narcoviolence in Mexico to produce a significant decline in the country's tourist industry in recent years, says a private trade organization here.

Tourism has fallen off 13% in the past half dozen years, and Mexico's high ranking as an international tourist destination has dropped drastically in the same period.

The dire statistics were reported by the Mexican Hotel and Motel Association (MHMA). In 2010-2011, the United States, Australia and several western European nations advised their citizens to steer clear of areas constituting 65% of Mexico's national territory, due to high levels of organized crime violence in those regions (http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/11/65-of-mexico-declared-off-limits-to.html). Last year 12,658 people were murdered in drug related crimes, according to MHMA. The preceding year, 2009, brought troubles of its own when an outbreak of swine flu (H1N1) scared off foreign tourists for many months.

Not surprisingly, the trade group reports that border cities and states in northern Mexico, such as Chihuahua, have been the hardest hit. Those areas are frequently battlegrounds for drug cartels fighting over narcotics routes leading to the U.S. border, and vehicular travel in the region can be particularly dangerous.

MHMA reports that one severely affected tourist resort is Rosartio in Baja California state. Offering pristine beaches and located less than an hour's drive from downtown San Diego, tourism and related industries there are desperately trying to survive on an average hotel occupancy rate of 16%.

According to the World Travel Organization, in 2007 Mexico ranked in eighth place as the preferred choice of international visitors. In 2008 that ranking dropped to 19th, and in 2010 it fell to 23rd place. The administration of president Felipe Calderón has exerted great effort to restore confidence in the country's security, but in many areas the tourism trade is but a shadow of what it was several years ago. Once packed resorts like Acapulco and Veracruz have suffered a severe decline in business. Both have been ravaged by highly public acts of narco terrorism, including widespread extortion and mass executions.

Federal and state tourism departments, as well as private travel agencies throughout Mexico, are quick to point out that the problem is much more one of public perception than reality. Only a handful of foreign tourists have been involved in any kind of violence in recent years, including ordinary domestic crime, and most major resorts operate with extremely high levels of vigilance and private security.

The country's precipitous decline as a travel destination is one more worry for a nation facing many other challenges. In the state of Morelos, for instance, with its once popular destination of Cuernavaca, a local trade organization says that tourism accounts for almost 12% of the state's gross domestic product, and provides nearly 50,000 jobs. With similar economic importance in many other regions of the country, Mexico will have to find ways to lure back visitors as soon as possible. It must hope, too, that a factor beyond its direct control -- the worldwide economy, especially that of its big neighbor to the north -- improves enough to encourage travelers who have been staying home in recent years.