The United States asks its citizens not to travel to Mexico on spring break

First modification: 03/15/2023 – 12:12

By our correspondent in Mexico, Gwendoline Duval

On March 3, four Americans were kidnapped by suspected drug traffickers in the border city of Matamoros, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Two of them were killed, a third was shot, and a bystander was killed in the exchange of fire. The response from the United States, specifically from the state of Texas, which borders Mexico, is alert: “The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) urges Texans to avoid traveling to Mexico during spring break. Violence from drug cartels and other criminal activities pose a significant threat to the safety of anyone crossing into Mexico at this time,” DPS Director Steven McCraw said.

However, this warning does not seem to compete with the desire to enjoy the Mexican beaches. Mexico continues to be the favorite destination for this spring break, in which thousands of Americans exchange their winter clothes for bathing suits, sunscreen and a piña colada in hand. Trips are multiplying, especially for thousands of university students looking for a stay by the sea at much more affordable prices than in the United States.

The large “all included” resorts on the coast of Quintana Roo occupy the first places in the recommendations for the spring break. So the security alert issued by the state of Texas does not worry Jesús Almaguer, president of the Cancun Hotel Association, in the least: “We have not seen a significant drop. We are talking about 34,000 tourists in this market segment, not “There are so many. They are going to be diluted quite well in the 135,000 rooms that we have in the state.”

“Safer than America”

The Quintana Roo region received 19 million tourists in 2022, mostly from the United States. The increase in insecurity in Mexico continues to be a delicate issue for the sector and, in this sense, the hotel sectors try to explain to tourists that the risk is minimal: “It does not impact the influx of visitors because our strategy is to define exactly where there is violence”, explains Almaguer. “We do not deny it, but the problem of violence in Mexico is as far from Cancun and the Riviera Maya as it is from New York.”

In Quintana Roo, tourism is one of the main activities of the local economy since it represents around 12% of the state’s GDP.

For his part, President López Obrador does not hesitate to clean up the image of his country in his daily speech. When asked Monday about Washington’s travel warnings for Mexico, the president said his country was “safer than the United States.”