Mexico, we’re safer than you think

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The Mexican Tourism Ministry (SECTUR) has requested the U.S. Department of State to review and adjust the travel safety advice published in the Department’s travel advisories. SECTUR argues, according to Mexico News Daily, that the “advice against traveling to some destinations is misguided.”

SECTUR issued a press release detailing the virtual bilateral meeting, led by the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán between the Mexico and the United States whose side was led by Secretary for Consular Affairs, Angela Kerwin.

As we slide into the Thanksgiving weekend, Mexico continues to be the destination of choice for U.S. travelers heading abroad to celebrate the holiday. Indeed, approximately 73% of all tourists to Mexico come from the United States. Air travel to Mexico in 2021 for example increased two fold from 2020’s level of more than 5 million travelers to the 2021 total of 10,077,000 travelers (in 2019, the number of travelers to Mexico was 10,158,000) with 2022 expected to eclipse this number by a wide margin.

Mexico has been conducting what they call “Operacion Tocas Puertas” (Operation Knock on Doors) across the United States with the goal of positioning Mexico as a preferred destination for international tourists, specifically, tourists from the United States. In addition SECTUR has program “Reencuentro con mis Raíces” (Reencounter with my roots) which targets the 35 million Mexican-Americans in the United States, to visit Mexico.

During the bilateral, SECTUR suggested that “travel alerts should detail the areas that could represent problems and not generalize, as some isolated cases of insecurity are numerous kilometers from tourism destinations.” We, at Securely Travel tend to agree that often times the headlines detailing a misfortune of a foreign traveler, does not take the time to highlight that the incident occurred in a locale which is not frequented by tourists, or that the tourist was engaged in unlawful activities and dealing with the criminal element.

That said, there is no getting around the incidents in Acapulco where the attack on tourists occurred in a hotel lobby or the ones in Puerto Morales which occurred on the beaches in front of a five star resort.

Angela Kerwin, Secretary of Consular Affairs of the United States Department of State, specified “that timely information is the key to boosting tourism from the neighboring nation to Mexico, and in this way, tourists and US residents know in a timely manner the condition of the destination they visit or where they reside.” What she failed to note is that the U.S. travel advisories have attached to them an administrative tail of some length, when updates are made, and may not reflect current status quo, be it positive or negative.

Securely Travel is prepared to provide timely and detailed travel safety and security briefings for travelers. We continue to believe, that the odds of something untoward happening to a tourist in Mexico is low, but not zero and it is possible to visit Mexico and not get shot, or find yourself inadvertently in a dangerous position.