There’s been a lot of news coverage about violence in Mexico, very little of it bothering to note that Mexico is a huge country with thirty-some states and that a) almost all of that violence is narco-related and b) you can count the number of tourists affected on one hand.

Meanwhile, according to the FBI, “An estimated 15,241 persons were murdered nationwide in 2009? in the United States of America.

Officially, 111 U.S. citizens were killed in Mexico last year, a third in just two cities. Almost all of them were involved in illicit vocations, usually the trafficking of guns, drugs, or people across the border. This is 111 out of close to 8 million visitors, with nearly 1 million of those being part- or full-time residents choosing Mexico over the U.S. or Canada.

You know who else had 111 murders in one year recently? Boston. And Las Vegas. And Orlando. Are any tourists scared of going to those places?

Meanwhile, almost 1,000 U.S. citizens died in Puerto Rico. Nobody running the news desks cares about Puerto Rico or has an incentive to make people scared of Puerto Ricans (by nature, they can’t be “illegal immigrants”), so this isn’t widely reported.

Then there’s the U.S. proper, which can’t get a State Department travel alert because it’s, well, not a foreign country. How’s your city doing in comparison to Mexico when it comes to the annual numbers?

Atlanta  - city, 80 murders. Atlanta MSA (metropolitan statistical area), 325 murders
Baltimore – 238 city, 298 MSA
Boston – 50 city, 111 MSA
Dallas/Ft. Worth – 210 city, 310 MSA
Detroit – 365 city, 447 MSA
Houston – 287 city, 462 MSA
Indianapolis – 100 city, 111 MSA
Jacksonville, FL – 99 city, 120 MSA
Kansas City – 100 city, 163 MSA
Las Vegas – 111 city, 133 MSA
Los Angeles – 312 city, 768 MSA
Miami  - 59 city, 377 Miami to Boca Raton corridor
New Orleans – 174 city, 252 MSA
New York City – 471 city, 778 MSA
Orlando – 28 city, 111 MSA
Philadelphia – 302 city, 436 MSA
Phoenix – 122 city, 302 MSA
San Francisco – 45 city, 292 MSA
St. Louis – 143 city, 210 MSA
Washington, DC – 143 city, 325 MSA

To put things in perspective, the murder rate in the Yucatan state of Mexico is 2 per 100,000. That’s about the same as Fond du Lac, Wisconsin or Evansville, Indiana. Mexico City’s is 8 per 100,000. Despite being one of the most populated cities on the planet, that’s on par with Albuquerque, NM. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never felt scared in Albuquerque…

Original: Travel Safety in Perspective: USA and Mexico |.

Posted on May 26th, 2011 by Tropicasa Realty
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MEXICO CITY – Mexico received $4.78 billion in foreign direct investment, or FDI, in the first quarter, a figure that was up 10.5 percent from the same period in 2010, when the country received $4.33 billion, the Economy Secretariat said.

The FDI figure was up by more than $2 billion, compared to the fourth quarter of 2010, when Mexico received $2.75 billion, the secretariat said.

The FDI numbers are preliminary because they are subject to subsequent revisions by companies, the secretariat said.

Some 1,827 companies invested directly in Mexico in the January-March period, with reinvested earnings accounting for 66.8 percent of FDI, while new investment represented 28.3 percent of the total and adjustments between companies accounted for 4.9 percent of the total, the secretariat said.

Some 54.4 percent of FDI went into manufacturing, while trade drew 18.1 percent, mining attracted 12 percent, professional services drew 7.3 percent, real estate attracted 6.1 percent and other sectors drew 2.1 percent, the secretariat said.

The main sources of FDI in Mexico were the United States, accounting for 85.2 percent, Switzerland, with 7.7 percent, Canada, with 2.4 percent, Spain, with 2.3 percent, the Virgin Islands, with 2.2 percent, and all other countries at 0.2 percent.

Mexico received $94.83 billion in FDI between January 2007 and March 2011, the Economy Secretariat said. EFE

Original at: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=394827&CategoryId=14091

Posted on May 26th, 2011 by Tropicasa Realty
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(Reuters) – Mexico has launched an ad campaign to counter its image as a dangerous country and the negative impact on its vital tourist industry of U.S. travel alerts warning Americans of violence south of the border.

“Those travel alerts that were headlining ‘If you want to stay alive, don’t travel to Mexico,’ we felt they were not only totally inaccurate but irresponsible,” Mexico Tourism Board CEO Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete told Reuters on Thursday.

Mexico is spending millions of dollars on print media and billboard ads in U.S. cities showing its ancient pyramids and sunny beaches to sway Americans from canceling their visits.

While thousands of American tourists have been scared away by the brutal drug war raging in parts of Mexico, Lopez-Negrete said the volume of people visiting Mexican resorts was back up to 2008 levels, although revenues were down because hotels were offering cheaper deals to draw wavering tourists.

“We were able to drive volume upwards at a cost of lower pricing but we are happy with that because as in any other business, volume comes back first, then you start escalating to the proper pricing,” he said. “That’s the strategy.”

Lopez-Negrete said the inaccurate travel alerts were hurting tourism, which accounts for 9 percent of Mexico’s economic output and is its third biggest source of foreign currency.

The drug violence is occurring far from the most popular resorts such as Cancun, Huatulco, Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, the Mexican official said, urging U.S. authorities to be more specific in their alerts.

In March, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned college revelers not to travel to Mexico for spring break with the message: “Stay alive.”

A U.S. State Department advisory issued over the Easter weekend urged U.S. citizens to avoid all but essential travel to 10 states in northern and central Mexico due to “ongoing violence and persistent security concerns.”

While major Mexican resorts were half empty earlier this year, Lopez-Negrete said they were almost full at Easter.

Foreign visitors spent $11.9 billion last year in Mexico, up 5 percent from 2009 when the global economic crisis and H1N1 virus scares took their toll on global tourism. But 2010 figures were still down 10 percent from $13.3 billion in 2008.

More than 37,000 people have been killed in Mexico since late 2006 when President Felipe Calderon took office and sent the Mexican armed forces to crush powerful cartels battling for lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

Lopez-Negrete said investors trusted the government was going to quell the violence and continued to expand in Mexico.

Luxury hotels are being built in the Riviera Maya and other resort areas by the world’s top hotelier InterContinental Hotel Group, Spain’s largest chain Sol Melia, Hilton hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and AM Resorts LLC, Lopez-Negrete said.

“The appetite continues to be there, because investors know tourism has always been very profitable in Mexico and the quality and value is second to none,” he said. “There is confidence in initiatives President Calderon has taken.”

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Original at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/us-mexico-usa-tourism-idUSTRE74C05220110513

Posted on May 13th, 2011 by Tropicasa Realty
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Editor’s Note: Robert Reid is Lonely Planet’s New York-based U.S. travel editor and host of the 76-Second Travel Show.

New York (CNN) — Mexico tourism is having a bit of a PR problem lately.

Reports of mass grave sites, daylight shootings and carjackings from the escalating drug war don’t exactly build confidence for a family planning a week’s holiday. And on April 22, the U.S. State Department upgraded its travel warnings to target 14 of Mexico’s 31 states.

Now’s not the time to visit our southerly neighbor, right? Well, wrong. Mexico is a lot safer than you may realize.

We tend to lump all of Mexico — a country the size of Western Europe — together. For example, a border incident resulted in the death of a Colorado tourist last year, and the Texas Department of Homeland Security recommended against travel to all of Mexico.

Yet it’s in the 17 of 31 states not named in the newly expanded warnings where you’ll find the most rewarding destinations: the Yucatan Peninsula and Baja California beach resorts, colonial hill towns like the ex-pat haven of San Miguel de Allende, even the capital Mexico City.

Mexican protesters march to end drug war

An hour inland from Cancun’s beaches, Yucatan state — home to the most popular Mayan sites and “real Mexican” colonial cities such as Merida and Valladolid — is among the country’s safest. The state, with roughly the same population as Kansas, saw two drug-related deaths in 2010. Wichita, Kansas, alone had six gang-related killings over the same period.

Lonely Planet: 8 top places to (safely) visit in Mexico now

Map: Mexico travel guidelines

In most of central and southern Mexico, drug violence simply isn’t on the radar of daily life. “It’s as easy-going as it’s always been,” said Deborah Felixson, a diving operator on Cozumel who is “shocked” when people say they had been scared to go to the Caribbean island. “We’re just small communities here. We all know what everyone’s up to.”

That sentiment is found even in places once linked with political tension, such as Chiapas state and Oaxaca City, where political protest turned into a stand-off in 2006.

“Things are so much quieter now,” said Rogelio Vallesteros, who runs a Spanish-language school in Oaxaca City. “People call to ask about safety all the time, then they come and see how quiet it is. We’re normal, really.”

Mexico tourism official: Vacation spots far removed from violence

After the swine-flu crisis of 2009 — when some cruise ships diverted routes from Mexican ports that had no reported cases to American ones that did — travel bounced back a bit last year. Interestingly, the increase of returning Canadians and many Western Europeans doubled that of the American rate. We seem to remain particularly leery of Mexico.

That’s sad. My love of travel began with childhood visits to Mexican ruins and beaches, and I feel the U.S. is fortunate, not cursed, to be so close to a place that offers jungles, deserts, volcanoes, beaches, coral reefs, ancient pyramids, living pre-European cultures and some of the world’s most satisfying cuisines.

And of course the best reason to go: the people.

A couple years ago, I informally polled various innkeepers and tour operators worldwide to find out who are the world’s friendliest travelers. Guess who won. “Mexicans are such a joy to have here,” one Bulgarian guesthouse owner e-mailed back. “They make everyone feel happier.”

And it’s often better in Mexico, where locals show particular gusto in love of life. Once I saw fireworks go off in Mexico City, before sunset, and asked a local why. He was surprised I didn’t know. “It’s Friday,” he explained.

In restaurants, strangers seeing each other’s eyes instinctively say “buen provecho” before eating. It’s an earnest wish that their food should not only be tasty, but really pleasurable, and that the hope that their life will be a bit better as a result. There really is no English equivalent. Even our adopted “bon appétit” pales in significance.

Naturally, crime exists everywhere in Mexico.

I’ve been pickpocketed in Guadalajara (and in New York, too). But that’s the extent of my unpleasant scrapes in a dozen visits that have taken me to home-stay language courses, traditional Mayan markets, mummy museums, cenotes (surreal limestone sinkholes in which you can swim) and even Zapatista zones in the south.

Most travel to Mexico, ultimately, is simply good travel. It’s fun, affordable, eye-opening and fascinating (seriously, what other city of 21 million other than Mexico City is founded on a filled-in lake?).

But, no, you don’t have to visit Mexico. And there are certainly places, like Ciudad Juarez or Tamaulipas state, I’d never visit now. Just know that the Mexico experienced on the ground almost never matches the Mexico we increasingly see and read about.

Travel expert: Why you should go to Mexico – CNN.com.

Posted on May 7th, 2011 by Tropicasa Realty
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Top 25 Destinations in the Caribbean & Mexico

via TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Destinations Awards – Top 25 – Caribbean & Mexico.

Posted on May 7th, 2011 by Tropicasa Realty
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