Data compiled by Banixco, Mexico's central bank
Guadalajara -
Mexico's central bank, Banixco, reported this week that despite the government's efforts to promote border tourism, the number of travelers willing to visit once highly popular areas declined significantly last year. Banixco is the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.
As always, most travelers who did visit northern Mexico came directly from the United States.
The numbers surprised some officials, because border tourism had showed signs of a major rebound in 2011. Moreover, statistics released Jan. 6 revealed that organized crime murders in Ciudad Juárez, just across the border from El Paso, decreased a whopping 64% in 2012. Apparently that fact failed to instill confidence in American tourists.
Border tourism dropped 5.3% last year, reported Banixco, generating much less traffic than in 2009 and 2010, and only slightly more than in 2008.
The central bank suggested in its analysis that fear of the extraordinary violence which Mexico has experienced in recent years, especially in population centers like Juárez and Monterrey, conspired with a sluggish U.S. economy to persuade many Americans to stay at home or travel domestically.
Reduced travel by Americans to other once favorite destinations in Mexico hint at a similar decision (Jan. 22 - Puerto Vallarta: tensions linger after brazen narco attack).
A professor of international relations at a Monterrey university, quoted by the press here, said "There exists a generalized hysteria" on the part of foreign tourists with respect to northern Mexico. He noted that it had adversely affected not only his city and Juárez, but Chihuahua, Tijuana and Baja California. "The same plazas which tourists naturally want to visit in those towns are the very ones being fought over by brutal organized crime groups. For obvious reasons, people are afraid to come," he observed.
Others have noted that the many travel warnings issued by the U.S. government in recent months haven't helped matters any (links below). Several of those have extended far beyond border regions, covering even places like Guadalajara. And a 2012 spring break travel alert issued by Texas state officials specifically applied to Cancún and the Riviera Maya in Quintana Roo, angering its governor.
For anyone who doubted that even routine highway trips in Mexico can prove deadly, the brazen Feb. 2011 murder of a U.S. federal agent - traveling in an armored vehicle with government plates - laid that question to rest. The ICE agent and his partner were attacked by a machine gun wielding hit squad of Los Zetas sicarios on a major route south of Monterrey. He bled to death within minutes.
With last week's robbery and gang rape of six young Spanish tourists at their Acapulco beach house, Pacific coast tourism could soon nosedive as well. Spain and other European nations are urging their citizens to stay out of Mexico (Feb. 6 - International press bombards Acapulco: "a death zone"), and a Mexican organization this week called the city the second most dangerous in the world.
Mar. 29, 2012 - U.S. drug czar tells House that Ciudad Juárez is world's deadliest city
U.S. and foreign travel warnings about Mexico
Nov. 20, 2012 - U.S. State Dept. renews general travel alert for Mexico
Aug. 27, 2012 - U.S. State Dept. issues Guadalajara warning
Jun. 12, 2012 - U.S. State Dept. issues Mexico-wide alert, warning of "anti-American violence"
Jun. 5, 2012 - U.S. State Dept. Warning to Americans in Mexico
Mar. 31, 2012 - U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, Tamaulipas issues Emergency Warning for Americans
Mar. 2, 2012 - Spring Break nears, but U.S. students are not headed to Cancún (or much of Mexico)
Feb. 8, 2012 - U.S. issues new travel alert for Mexico
Dec. 22, 2011 - U.S. warns citizens after narco terrorists launch offensive in Veracruz - 16 dead
Nov. 21, 2011 - Mexico reports major decline in tourism due to narco crime, world economic woes
Nov. 6, 2011 - 65% of Mexico declared "off limits" to foreign travelers by western nations
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