Tourism stumbles in Mexico

With a stifled economy around the world and skyrocketing violence around the country, Mexico’s tourism has taken a mighty big hit.

According to a report in Mexico’s Reforma and mentioned in the LAHT, tourism nationwide has plummeted. Such is particularly the case in border cities like Ensenada, Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez where the numbers of tourists visiting them plunged by 13 to 21%. Even some cities in the interior suffered an average decline of 10% in arrivals, according to cited tourism figures.

Is it any wonder that luminaries like Guillermo Del Toro are so worried over Mexico’s violence that they're afraid to work there?

"Hellboy" director Guillermo del Toro says he is unlikely to make another film in Mexico because his father's kidnapping 10 years ago left him fearing for his safety, a newspaper has reported.

Del Toro's father was eventually released, but the family says it later received death threats…

"Not all of the people who participated in the kidnapping were captured," El Universal newspaper on Thursday quoted him as saying.

He described his situation as a "forced exile" and said it saddens him to think he may never film again on Mexican streets.

There is one small bright spot for Mexico’s tourism: Spain’s Office of Tourism concluded that Mexico City is world's most visited religious tourism destination.

Image- AFP (“Three severed heads have been found stuffed inside a cooler outside the Guadalupe town hall, Mexico”)
Online Sources- La Plaza, Vivirlatino, LAHT, UPI