The weather was fine – in the 80s by day and 60s at night. Not a cloud in sight except, perhaps, the shadows cast by sharply armed policia in Kevlar vests keeping the peace along the Malecon. This is the new face of Old Mexico: not-so-camouflaged security making the rounds, standing their grounds on streets where a tourist is much more likely to get felled by too much tequila than by a stray or targeted bullet.
The location was Puerto Vallarta and I was there to attend a conference aimed at selling tourism to Mexico to travel companies in the U.S. and Canada. The message was clearly meant to show that Mexico is safe – safe from swine bugs, safe from cartel bullies and safe from Somali-style pirates. The hulking policia and relays of young soldiers riding in pick-up beds meant to drive it all home. Politicians lined up to underscore it and the Mexican Tourism Board decided to approach it with a new spin. Mexico is no longer Mexico. The message is “come to Puerto Vallarta, come to Puebla, come to Oaxaca and Monterrey and Veracruz. Mexico is a large land with a lot of places and well, bad guys can’t be everywhere.
And indeed it is so. Mexico as a country of 113.4 million people saw more than 18,000 murders in 2011 –80 percent of them drug or cartel related – averaging out to around 130 murders per 100,000 in the toughest cities, where 90 percent of the crime takes place. But just for comparison, Detroit sees ten times that action: 1,220 violent crimes per 100,000 people. But then when was the last time travel companies were selling mass travel packages to a beach in Detroit?
The fact is travel to Mexico is safe or as safe as travel to anywhere can be. Even Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, sees its share of accidents.
In Mexico, stay in the tourism zones if you can and let your good jewelry stay home. Invest in some Huichol earrings instead and let it all hang out…
Should you get held up by a hotel bully who is trying to overcharge you for a can of Coke that was never yours, there is protection. Along with higher security in popular fun zones, Mexico has a new countrywide consumer protection number you can call. Dial a local “078” and get a travel & tourism consumer advocate on the line to fix the fix you’re in. Now when was the last time you got that kind of service in mid-town Manhattan?