Media Hype, Swine Flu and Mexico
A postcard perfect view in Cancun
I was just about to write a piece about how despite all the rabid drug violence it’s safe to travel to Mexico–when the swine flu hit. Media hype would have you believe they we’re all going to die of this disease, when the facts are that at this moment, very few people worldwide are affected, it’s not necessarily deadly and health agencies worldwide seem prepared to deal with any possible major outbreak. While no one is disputing that parts of Mexico are being ravaged by drug gangs at war with each other, it bears pointing out the most of the violence is in border towns like Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, and not in the primary tourist destinations including Cancun, Riviera Maya, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Ixtapa, Los Cabos and Acapulco—which are hundreds and often thousands of miles from the northwest part of the country, where most of the killings have gone down. Tens of millions of American and international tourists visited Mexico in 2008, and thus far not a single tourist from any country has been killed, injured or kidnapped due to the drug war. Mexican tourism authorities hope it stays that way, since tourism is the third largest business for the country, bringing in more than $13 billion in revenue, about 9% of the GDP. In fact, possibly because of better deals in a bad economy, tourism had gone up in the first few months of this year. Now, with the swine flu, all bets are off. Talk about hitting a country when it’s down. Let’s hope this “epidemic” runs its course quickly.
