Mexico's tourism minister advocates for lower category US travel warnings

Officials believe that excessive caution may scare visitors away from secure regions in the country.

According to the Tourism Ministry, the United States should modify the way it formulates travel advisories for Mexico, as the country is urging the US government to issue more specific travel warnings while claiming that the State Department's recommendations against visiting certain locations are incorrect.

Currently, the State Department urges Americans not to go to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas, because of high criminality rates, violence and kidnapping and encourages them to avoid visiting seven more regions in Mexico.

Federal Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco, Mexico's ambassador to the US, Esteban Moctezuma, and state tourism officials held a virtual meeting with the State Department representatives in order to talk about the travel alerts situation. Following the meeting, the Tourism Ministry published a news statement titled "Mexico and the United States Move Forward on Agreements to Correctly Target Travel Alerts."

However, the Mexican ambassador claimed that the travel warnings issued by the US have to “detail the areas that could represent problems and not generalize, as some isolated cases of insecurity are numerous kilometers from tourism destinations.” The latest notifications for each state should extend beyond a one-sentence recommendation, as the Mexican government is plainly displeased with the level 4 advisories against visiting some popular areas, including Acapulco and Zihuatanejo.

At the same time, Ambassador Torruco stressed that Mexico and the United States should find answers to mutual concerns by working together and strengthening their relationship.

“We live in an era in which the destiny of countries is not built in an individual and isolated way, but jointly with friendly nations. In North America we’ve understood that prosperity and security will be greater and stronger if we work together,” also added the tourism minister.

Similarly, Moctezuma as well mentioned "the importance of the link between U.S. State Department authorities and the ministers and representatives of the entities of Mexico in order to have more nurtured dialogue that allows the situation in each of the country’s tourist destinations to be understood”.

Mexican federal and state officials are at the same time laying out the argument for why level 4 (Do Not Travel) or even level 3 advisories should not apply to some areas inside states where such recommendations are in effect.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard previously stated that Mexico has never consented to the warnings because the US imposes them unilaterally. The Tourism Minister further mentioned Angela Kerwin, deputy assistant secretary with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, who declared that "timely information" is an essential tool for promoting tourism to Mexico.

“In this way tourists and United States residents [in Mexico] will know the condition of the destination they’re visiting or where they live in a timely way,” the assistant secretary commented.

To sum up, Torruco emphasized the importance of the US market for the Mexican tourism sector, stating that more than 10 million Americans traveled to Mexico in 2021 and that the great majority of them experienced no major issues while in the country. As a plus, Mexico is highly popular among American tourists for its sandy beaches, towns, gastronomy, and friendly people.

 

Source: mexiconewsdaily.com