According to new data the numbers of foreign tourists to Mexico continues to increase despite rampant violence in several parts of the country.
Mexico's Tourism Department reported on Monday that there was a 5.3% increase in foreign visitors to the country between January and April of this year compared to the same period in 2011. Nearly five million tourists representing 147 nationalities visited Mexico in the first four months this year according to the government data.
Despite State Department travel warnings against visiting areas of Mexico hurt by drug related violence the U.S. is the country with the highest amount of tourists visiting Mexico during the first four months this year. One of the reasons for this could be the 7.2% increase in spring breakers traveling to Mexico this year compared to 2011. (Perhaps this explains why some of the main destinations for foreign travelers were Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Cozumel).
The data also revealed significant increases in visitors coming from overseas countries like Russia (71.0% increase), Sweden (40.8% increase) and China (34.8% increase). Mexican tourism also received major increases in visitors from Latin American countries such as Brazil (69.5% increase), Argentina (27.4% increase) and Guatemala (83.4% increase).
The below video describes the bad publicity over the death of Canadian woman in Mazatlan several months ago. Yet the new data revealed that the number of Canadian tourists increased in the past four months of 2012 to over 889,000 visitors:
The number of foreign visitors to major cities and attractions also grew according to the Tourism Department. Nevertheless, local authorities in Mexico City are hoping to attract more gay visitors by promoting the legality of same-sex marriage in the metropolis.
Video Source – YouTube via Global National
Online Sources – etravelbackboard.us, U.S. State Department, Vanguardia, Huffington Post, BBC News, Excelsior
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The apparent violence is never a reason to receive less tourism. There are conspiracies that make a country seem unsafe when that is not true. It is the case of Argentina. I was there a couple of months ago in a buenos aires apartment. I did not get robbed but, most important, I never saw anybody getting mocked, so now I know it is only something the mass media makes up. Fortunately, people don´t believe those things and they keep going to Argentina as well as Mexico!
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