New Travel Warning Raises the Question: Is It Safe to Travel to Mexico? Susan Glaser - The Plain Dealer
go to original September 15, 2017

Navy sailors patrol the beach in Cancun (Associated Press)

Is it safe to travel to Mexico? The complicated answer: It depends. It depends on where you're going, it depends on what you're doing, it depends on your tolerance for risk.

The same might be said for many popular tourist destinations. Is it safe to travel to New Orleans, for example? Chicago? Cleveland?

"You can visit Detroit and be very safe," said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "But there are places you wouldn't want to go. The same is true for Mexico."

He added: "If people do their research and follow the same good-sense guidelines that they would do in any American city - they'll be absolutely fine."

Included in what Wood calls good-sense guidelines: Don't drink excessively; don't buy drugs; don't wander into unfamiliar neighborhoods, especially at night.

Wood, who travels to Mexico at least once a month and lived there for 17 years, offered his advice in the wake of the U.S. State Department's decision last month to expand an existing Travel Warning for Mexico, which now includes, for the first time, some of the country's most popular tourist destinations, including Cancun and the Riviera Maya area on the Caribbean coast, and Los Cabos on the Pacific coast.

Unlike some State Department warnings, this one does not recommend avoiding travel altogether; it simply "warns U.S. citizens about the risk of traveling to certain parts of Mexico due to the activities of criminal organizations in those areas."

Even so, the new warning sent shock waves through the $20 billion Mexican tourism industry, and the many American companies that support it.

Mexico is the most popular international destination for U.S. travelers, attracted by cheap prices and easy access. Every year, more than 25 million Americans travel south of the border, for sun, sand, big cities, small towns, cultural sites and mega-resorts.

Read the rest at Cleveland.com

Related: U.S. Travelers Respond to State Department’s Travel Advisory on Mexico (The Yucatan Times)

Related: The Continuing Discussion Over Mexican Security and Tourism (MexiData)

Related: Los Cabos Tourism Director Talks Mexico Travel Warning Impact (Travel Agent Central)

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